by Melody Rose
“Come on,” she called.
I scrambled to my feet, slipping on the blood, but managed to follow my friend. She led us back to where we left Hannan and Julei. The two of them were crouched against a shelf, Hannan kneeling in front of Julei, who stood stock-still.
When Freja and I approached with the light from my arms, we could see Julei’s eyes had, once again, gone pearly white. She was in the middle of a vision, and Hannan listened intently.
“What is she saying?” I asked as we reached the pair of them.
“She is reciting a memory,” Hannan explained wearily. “I am not sure, but she sounds happy.”
Sure enough, the young girl had a bright smile on her face as she spoke. Her cheeks burned with a rosy glow, and little crinkles appeared at the corners of her eyes.
“We have to get farther away from the snake,” Freja reported, her mind still on the mission at hand. “We disabled it for now, but the more distance we put between ourselves and it, the better.”
As if she were responding to Freja directly, Julei blinked once, and her eyes returned to normal. She swayed a little, and Hannan reached out to stabilize her.
“Julei,” he cried, “are you alright?”
“Yes,” she said eagerly. Though she was still unsteady on her feet, Julei’s smile widened, even brighter than before. “I know where the exit is.”
“You do?” I asked, my voice full of hope. “Lead the way.”
“No,” Julei said. Her face fell for the first time since breaking from her vision. “The problem is that I only saw Hannan and I going through the exit. You and Freja were not with us.
Panic tightened my throat. “Well, where were we?”
“I do not know,” Julei said weakly. “But Hannan and I had the book, and we managed to get up to the surface. The dragons are waiting for us.”
“I don’t like this.” I shook my head. “You two wouldn’t just leave us.”
“They left us so we could ensure they get out safely,” Freja advised. She pulled her hair over her shoulder and rung out the excess of the blood. It pattered to the floor and stained the stones at our feet. “We stay behind to kill the snake.”
“We have to split up,” Julei said definitively.
“Not going to happen,” I replied automatically.
“Eva,” Hannan said softly, “if she saw it, we need to hear her out.”
“Hannan and Julei take the book and head for the exit,” Freja said, jumping on board quicker than I thought she would. “You and I stay and kill that snake once and for all.”
“Well, then how do you propose we get out?” I challenged as I tucked the book tighter to my chest like a security blanket.
“You do get out,” Julei said. “I saw you with us and the dragons again. You just do not leave with us.”
“I still don’t like this,” I said with a violent shake of my head. “I promised your parents that I would take care of you, and I don’t want to let you out of my sight.”
“She saw it, Eva,” Freja argued, with an open arm outstretched to Julei. “You told me all of her visions have come true, yes? What more proof do you need?”
I swallowed and closed my eyes for a brief second. I knew to trust Julei’s visions and that the girl was more capable than we gave her credit for. However, my sense of duty and that vow I made to protect her at all costs plagued my heart. I couldn’t get over the idea of letting her wander through this maze of books without me to guard her.
Julei stepped towards me, arms outstretched. They were gentle steps, like a human approaching an angered beast. She looked at me in the eye, with those purple irises staring intently, calmly, and assuredly.
“Eva,” Julei pleaded, her voice high-pitched. “Trust me. We get out of this alive.”
At her words, hope bloomed in my chest. I hadn’t realized how much I had been worrying about our death, about how we landed in this impossible situation with no way out. But that short declaration from Julei reassured me in ways I couldn’t explain. I put my trust in the girl and gave her the book.
Julei offered me a single nod and tucked the book under one arm. She looked at Hannan, who rose to his feet.
“We will see you soon,” she declared. It wasn’t so much of a goodbye as it was a promise.
“See you soon,” I replied, my voice weak to my own ears.
Julei took Hannan’s hand in her own, and the two of them disappeared into the darkness, walking farther and farther away from the light of my hands until we couldn’t see them anymore.
The minute the pair were out of sight, Freja turned to me, all business.
“I am ready to kill this bastard,” she said with an unfamiliar hardness. “How about you?”
I steeled myself, pushing all of my worried thoughts about Julei and Hannan to the back of my brain. I unsheathed my sword from my own belt, the first time I had done so on this entire journey. Irena’s sword that I had pulled from the mouth of a dragon took on the glow from my hands. The light reacted positively to it, twirling and dancing up the hilt and then the blade.
My eyes snapped to Freja’s, and we connected instantly. I willed up a confidence that I didn’t quite have to fight the nerves. I took a couple of deep breaths, and my hands steadied, the sword growing still in my grip.
“Let’s go,” I told the soldier, letting her lead the way.
We scoured the Library for the best place to enact our plan. Eventually, we found two twin bookcases, mirroring one another, high enough and sturdy enough. They were made of stone, more like the circular center bookcase, than the other wood ones throughout the Library.
Without the snake’s sense of smell to hunt us down, we had to lead him to us. He was easy enough to find. We just had to follow the trail of blood that marked his path. He wasn’t far from where Freja had injured him, having only gone a couple of rows over.
His djer was comforting him when we spotted the pair. She rubbed her hand over his head and muttered soothing words to him as he babied the wound in his mouth. A brief wave of sympathy overcame me as I saw the two. Despite their murderous intentions, this was a bonded couple. If Monte were injured as badly as this snake, I didn’t know what I would do. Probably go after those responsible. Which is exactly what we were hoping the woman would do.
“Hey!” I called out, getting their attention.
The snake’s head rose, out of reach of his djer. The woman whipped her head around, her blond curls bobbing off to the side.
I almost stopped the plan right then when I saw the woman’s face. The shock shook me to the bone. Her chin was doused in blood. It stained the corners of her mouth, creating lines kind of like a ventriloquist puppet. Her lips burned a bright red as blood dribbled from her mouth.
The sight disgusted me, and I found my stomach churning once again. She looked like a vampire who had just feasted in the white light from my hands and sword.
The revulsion doubled when the woman actually opened her mouth and howled. It was pure noise, nothing coherent. The reason for such a visceral cry was that fact that, like her djer, she no longer had a tongue.
Any witty line I planned to use to grab her attention flew right from my head. The situation was incomprehensible. I knew that some djers had stronger bonds than others, but I had never seen two beings that responded to each other’s injuries so strongly. Apparently, whatever we did to one, happened to the other. That had to be the answer because the only other one I could think of, that she had cut out her own tongue in solidarity of her djer, was too gruesome to bear.
“You want the book?” I croaked, my voice hoarse and heavy.
The woman’s eyes narrowed, focusing on me and my words.
“Come and get it,” I challenged.
Then I dashed down the hall, away from her and the snake.
I didn’t bother looking back, but I knew the snake pursued me. The all-too-familiar sound of his slithering echoed behind me. I weaved in and out of shelves, making my route complicated for the large sna
ke to follow. Still, he maneuvered his languid body in and out.
We had pre-planned my path, and I marked it with my little orbs of light. As I ran through each orb, it absorbed back into me, giving me strength. It seemed like a live-action Pac-Man game, and I smiled at the amusing thought. I let that small joy fuel me as I dashed ahead of the beast.
I had never been more grateful for Kehn’s intense training than I was in that moment as I hurtled out of danger and led the snake right into our trap.
I reached the two stone bookshelves and proceeded to climb the one on the left. It wasn’t an easy climb, and I stumbled several times. Stray pebbles fell beneath my feet and reminded me just how far the fall would be.
“Hurry, Eva,” Freja called from the other bookshelf. “He is coming.”
With a deep inhale, I hauled myself up to the designated shelf. Awaiting me was the rope that Freja jury-rigged to the inside. She had the exact same setup, just across the way. I mirrored her position. The rope coiled in neat ovals held together by my hand. I held on with that same hand to the top end of the rope, my feet braced against one of the lower shelves. My sword rested, blade down, in my other hand.
We waited with baited breaths. Luckily, our patience did not have to last long because, sure enough, the snake lumbered through the shelves. The woman rode on the beast, up near his head. Before they passed us all together, Freja called out.
“Now!”
As one, the soldier and I released the ropes and jumped down off the shelves. We let our swords lead the way as we hurtled for the snake.
The impact shook my entire body. The blade sliced easily through the skin of the beast, but when I hit something hard internally, the shock radiated up my arm, and I struggled to keep hold of the hilt.
The second jerk came from when the rope went taut. It yanked my shoulder upward, in the opposite direction of the rest of me. The jolt was so rough that I nearly popped the joint of its socket.
I pushed through the strain and made sure my sword connected. Freja’s did the same, and we pierced the snake with diligence and strength.
Needless to say, the animal cried out in pain. His cry harmonized with the woman’s as she jerked forward, appearing to have been hit in her own back, though neither of us laid a hand on her.
As quickly as we could, Freja and I pulled our swords from the creature’s body. The retrieval was harder than the initial stabbing. I couldn’t quite get my blade out all the way. I needed to use both hands to yank it free, but the rope attached to my other hand didn’t have enough give. My arms stretched wide and pulled against the tendons in my upper body.
Meanwhile, the snake jerked about. He wailed in pain, a sound I never thought I would hear. It hit pitches I didn’t think existed and strained my ears. The snake slammed his body into the shelves with a violent strength.
Freja was high enough on her rope to be out of the way of the massive beast, but her bookcase crumbled with the repeated impacts from the snake. Unable to get my sword all the way free, I was forced to let go of the hilt because of the beast’s flaying. So, I swung back and forth like a pendulum, trying to get leverage.
“Eva!” Freja cried, her voice more frightened than I ever heard.
I caught an image of her right before the bookshelf took one last blow and crumbled to the ground.
“Freja!” I called out as I watched my friend tumble down towards the ground below. But my shouts were lost in the tumult of stone and rock that cascaded down.
Before long, I felt my own rope slacken as the anchor that once helped me aloft also gave way. The ground rushed up towards me. There was only the briefest hint of pain that rippled through my whole body before darkness consumed me.
15
I wasn’t sure at first if I actually woke up. The world around me was just as dark as when I closed my eyes. It was nearly impossible to tell the difference. Still, my eyes blinked a couple of times and tried to make out any of the shapes in the blackness.
It was then that the pain came. I groaned audibly and nearly threw up then and there. Then I closed my eyes again and tapped into the light. Before the pain could get too far into my head, I asked the light to surround me and heal me.
Like liquid honey, I felt the light ooze through my veins. It started at my chest and wrapped around my broken ribs, setting them right. It traveled up and down my body simultaneously. Bruises lightened and cuts sealed. Soon, the pounding in my head subsided as the pain dulled.
I tucked my hands up underneath me so I could roll myself over onto my back. As I stared up at a ceiling of rock, I released a huff of air. The light remained on the surface of my skin, giving me a chance to assess my surroundings.
My eyes flitted back and forth since I wasn’t quite ready to move my head. There was nothing but rock. It looked jagged and poorly put together, but it was rock all the same. It covered the ceiling and the sides of this enclosed space. There was some room to move about but not much. I wasn’t sure if I could properly stand up with how low the ceiling was.
“What the…?” I asked no one as my brain rattled about to find the memories that would tell me where I was and how I got there.
“Eva?” a weak voice called from the corner.
“Freja?” I checked. I craned my neck back and rolled my eyes upward to get a better look in the direction of the voice.
A little ways above me sat Freja, huddled in a cramped section of the space and her back curved into an uncomfortable c-shape. Her head had an open, bleeding gash in the side that trickled down into her ear. She cradled her arm in the other, clutching it across her chest.
“Oh my God, Freja,” I gasped at the sight of her.
I forced myself to roll back over and push up onto all fours to crawl over to my friend. I had to duck under one particularly low bit of rock, slinking around it like a cat. When I reached her, I immediately put out my glowing hands. Nervously, Freja flinched out of the way.
“No, it’s okay,” I reassured her. “I can heal you.”
“That is right,” Freja remembered with a grimace. “I forgot you can heal superficial injuries too.”
“These look way worse than superficial,” I commented as I laid a hand on her shoulder.
Freja hissed at my touch. I urged the light to flow into her as I pictured her whole and well. I imagined her strong, lithe body as it fought and defended. In my mind’s eye, I drew thick muscles and a steady heartbeat. I closed the wound on her head and managed to limit the scar to the size of a fingernail.
Freja breathed a sigh of relief when the process finished. I coughed as I noticed the toll healing both of us took on my powers. While I had been getting steadily stronger, my already weak body had trouble using this much energy at once. As a consequence, my light dimmed a little.
“Does it hurt you?” Freja commented, ever observant. “To heal others? Does it harm you at all?”
“I don’t feel their pain or anything,” I replied, thinking. “But it takes a toll on me. I get worn out more than anything, like my energy is zapped from me.”
“Well, thank you,” Freja said softly as she looked at the ground.
“You’re welcome,” I responded, not quite knowing what else to say.
We sat in silence for a moment, both of us lost in our own thoughts. I wracked my brain to figure out how we ended up here, in this confined space with such excessive injuries. However, everything turned up blank. It was as though someone had censored my memories.
“So,” I ventured, hoping Freja’s brain worked more swiftly than mine, “where are we?”
Freja side-eyed me with a skeptical glare. “The Library.”
“I don’t remember going to this part,” I said with a gesture towards our surroundings.
“Yeah, that is because we created this part,” Freja reported with a huff. She exhaled deeply before continuing. “This is the result of our attack on the snake.”
As she spoke the words, the memories rushed back to me. I leaned back against a sharp
part of rock as I recalled it all. The snake. The blonde woman with the bloody mouth. My sword stabbing through the snake’s skin. Being yanked with the rope and then falling.
“Oh,” I said as I realized what happened.
“Oh is right,” Freja said harshly. “We trapped ourselves.”
“In the tumbling bookshelves,” I concluded. “It’s a cave-in.”
“Essentially,” Freja confirmed. “I was not sure until your light appeared, but that was my guess when I first woke up and could not see anything. That or I had been eaten. Though I figured that would smell worse.”
I chuckled at the thought, and then my stomach gurgled, disturbed by the notion of being swallowed whole.
“Where is the snake? Or that woman?” I darted my head around as if they might appear at any second.
“My hope is dead,” Freja said, “but if not, they cannot get to us. From what I can tell, there is no entrance or exit.”
“Wait, what?” I babbled. “You mean we can’t get out of here.”
“I have not yet tried every rock, but I am afraid that if we start fiddling with the structure, the whole thing might collapse, and we might not survive that.” Freja rubbed the back of her neck with one hand. She slid down the rock to sit on the lowest part of the floor. “We might as well get comfortable.”
“Comfortable, how?” I asked, my voice unsteady. “Freja, we can’t just give up.”
“I am not giving up,” she replied sternly. “I am simply accepting the situation. We are trapped.”
“No,” I snapped, “no, I won’t accept that. There has to be a way.”
I wrapped my hands into a ball and expanded them out as if inflating a balloon, the light along with it. It held in the center between the two of us, giving off a glow like an illuminated Christmas tree. I flitted about the room on all fours, in the confined space, like a firefly in a jar.
Freja watched me, moving only her eyes as I ran my hands along the rocks. It didn’t take me long as the space was only the size of a broom closet. I went up as high as I could and tucked my fingers into crevices. I searched and scoured for any loose rock or glimmer of sunlight.
