by Lola StVil
We’re halfway across when the calm water below us suddenly erupts in raging foam. It parts, and from its depths, something springs up.
It has the torso and head of a man and the tail of a large fish, but it’s not like anything the word merman summons up for me. It has long hair made from writhing eels that snap at the air around them. Its yellowy colored face is twisted in an expression of sheer evil joy. Its eyes are yellow orbs, and I see that it’s those that cast the sickly yellow glow over its face.
I shrink back as it draws level with us, its full body out of the water now. It reaches out with long fingers and latches onto Regal. He pulls against its grip, and it’s gone as quick as it came and the river below us is flat and calm again.
I think for a second it’s over, but then I see that Regal is gone. The merman has pulled him from the bridge, into the water with him.
“Fuck this,” I scream.
I dive over the edge before anyone can stop me. As I plummet towards the water, I hear Kane cursing, and I know without needing to check that he dove in behind me.
My body hits the water, and it’s so cold it feels like glass shards cutting into me. I go under, surrounded by bubbles, and I start paddling, looking frantically through the murky depths.
I spot movement and swim towards it. I feel a hand wrap around my ankle, and panic seizes me as I spin and kick. The hand moves up my leg, gently, almost tenderly, and I know it’s not the merman. It’s Kane. I relax, and he swims up to my side.
I swim forward until I can make out the merman. He holds Regal, who thrashes wildly in his grasp. Regal’s eyes are wide, and I see panic in them. The merman holds him like his struggling is no more than a minor annoyance.
He bends towards Regal, opening his mouth wide. His face no longer looks human as his mouth stretches unbelievably far. His jaws contain five rows of razor-sharp teeth, and I’m reminded of a shark.
The merman notices Kane and me, and he straightens up and smiles at us.
“An angel, a demon, and the last Seeker all in the same day. It’s my lucky day.”
I don’t know how he’s talking underwater, but I can understand him perfectly. His voice sounds like bubbles being blown underwater, yet I know exactly what he’s saying.
“I would be interested to know how three such different creatures became traveling companions, but first, I must feast. It’s been a long time since I enjoyed a delicacy such as angel soul,” he says.
My lungs are burning, and I know if I don’t break the surface and get a gasp of oxygen, I’ll drown. But if I leave now, Regal is done for. I glance at Kane, expecting him to look as helpless as I feel, but he doesn’t. He looks calm and in control.
He slowly reaches around to his pocket and slyly pulls out the small dagger he used to cut our palms in the library. He brings it up to eye level, and then he throws it. It tumbles almost lazily, end over end, and it impales itself into the merman’s upper arm.
The merman screams in rage and reaches up to pull the dagger out. He loses his grip on Regal, and Kane points to the surface. He reaches out and grabs Regal, who lost consciousness and was tumbling down into the water, and I kick for the surface. The three of us break our heads clear of the water at the same time, gasping in a big lungful of air.
The team is on the bridge, screaming our names. They have a length of green rope, which they dangle into the water. I begin to swim towards it, Kane beside me, dragging Regal along with us, but a hand clasps around my ankle and I’m dragged back under the water.
I twist and spin, trying to pull myself free, but the merman’s grip is too strong. I give up trying to wrench myself free, and I half turn so I’m looking into his yellow eyes; I raise my palm and blast him. The water slows my shot down enough that it isn’t fatal, but it hits the merman on the chest and causes him to shriek in pain.
I manage to pull my foot free and fire again. This time my shot misses its mark. I was aiming for his face, but my shot sails over his head, clipping the eels and severing some of their bodies. That was a bad move. The eels now all come at me as well as the merman, and for a moment, I don’t know what to do.
I snap out of my stupor and fire at the merman again. I try to ignore the eels, but they’re biting at me, and I can see the water around me being stained by my blood.
My lungs are already screaming again. I was pulled under the water before I could take a deep breath, and the little oxygen I had is bubbling out of me. I kick to the surface, but the merman reaches out and grabs me again, holding me down beneath the surface of the water.
I fire, once, twice. My shots aren’t impactful enough to cause him to let me go, and I fear I will drown. Red dots swim across my vision, and I’m starting to get dizzy. I fire again, more a reflex action, a survival instinct, than anything.
Suddenly, the merman’s chest explodes in a rush of black sludge, and I see a blade emerge there. The merman finally loses his grip and starts to sink. I see Kane pulling his sword free of the body. He came at him from behind and ran his sword right through him.
I watch as the merman falls away, down into the murky depths. Every eel from his head floats free and swims towards us, and every scale from his tail turns into a small silver fish which also swarms towards us.
Kane grabs my arm and pulls me to the surface. I didn’t even realize I was sinking until I felt him pull me up. My head breaks the surface, and I cough and splutter, retching the water back out of my lungs.
“I’m sorry I took so long. Regal was on the verge of drowning. I had to get him out,” Kane says.
“It’s okay,” I say. “The fish? Were they real?”
“Yes. And they’re coming after us,” Kane says.
I peer through the water and see them in a shoal coming towards us, flanked by the eels.
“We have to get to the vine,” Kane says.
Vine? Oh, the green rope was a vine. That makes more sense.
I’m aware of the team shouting to us, but I can’t concentrate on what they’re saying. I pump my arms and legs, trying desperately to outswim our new attackers. The fish surround us now, biting at us with small but sharp teeth. My whole body is like one giant, stinging paper cut. I look across at Kane and see his face contorted with pain, and I know they’re getting him too. The eels are the worst. They don’t nibble; they bite giant chunks out of us.
We’re almost at the vine, but Kane is falling behind.
“We’re almost there,” I tell him.
“Don’t stop,” he cautions me.
I know he’s tiring. Dragging Regal’s body to the vine and coming back, and then being under attack is draining him, but he pushes on.
I reach the vine and lock my fingers around it. Kane reaches it a second or two behind me, and he wraps his fingers around it too and gives it a yank, telling the team we’ve made it. I feel the vine starting to lift me up, but it’s slow going, and the fish and eels are still working on my lower body.
Tears of pain swim in my eyes, but I swallow them back. Finally, we’re clear of the water, and I think I’m okay. Bleeding, stinging, but okay.
I notice an eel hanging from Kane’s calf, its teeth locked on his flesh. He tries to kick it free but misses it, swinging wildly on the vine. It wraps itself around his leg and pulls itself up, digging its teeth into his thigh. He reaches down with one hand to bat it away. It sees the attack coming and jumps free of his thigh and sinks its teeth into his hand.
Without thinking, he moves his other hand to pull it free, and he’s falling. I see panic in his eyes. I reach out and grab his wrist with one hand. It feels like my shoulder will tear free from my body, but I stop his fall.
I look down, and he looks up at me. I can feel my fingers slipping down the vine, losing their grip.
“Let go,” Kane shouts.
“Never,” I shout back, gritting my teeth against the pain and hanging on. I squeeze my eyes shut, concentrating with all of my willpower to not let go of Kane. He isn’t gripping my wrist; he wants me to l
et him fall, but I won’t.
I feel something cold against my arm, and I dare to open my eyes a little. I feel relief when I see I’m level with the bridge, and with the relief comes a newfound strength.
“Don’t you dare give up on me,” I shout to Kane. “We’re almost there. Now grip on tight or I swear I’ll make your every waking second hell.”
He must know I’m serious because he does as I say. I feel my body stretching, his weight pulling me down, but I hold on. I’m level with the outstretched arms of the team now, and hands push themselves into my armpits, taking my weight. They hoist me a bit higher, and Regal reaches down past me.
“Kane, take my hand,” he shouts.
I think my arm will snap as Kane swings himself closer to Regal, and I bite back a scream, but then the pressure is off, and Regal takes Kane’s weight and pulls him over the bridge. Saudia and Langston drag me the rest of the way up, and I’m on the floor of the bridge in a wet, soggy mess.
“I knew this bridge was too good to be true,” I mutter.
“What?” Perry asks.
“Nothing. Let’s get across here,” I say.
He sticks out a hand and pulls me to my feet, and we run from the bridge. As we step onto solid ground, Kane takes me roughly by my shoulders and spins me to face him.
“If anything like that happens again, you let me fall, do you hear me?” he shouts.
“Oh, shut up, Kane,” I say wearily, and I lean up and kiss him.
His grip on my shoulders relaxes, and he wraps me up in his arms. He kisses me back, and somehow it makes everything okay.
“When you’re both finished, you’re kind of bleeding out everywhere,” Regal says.
I step back from Kane’s embrace.
“Well, you’re the healer, how about you fix it?” I grin.
There are a lot of things going unsaid. Regal knows Kane could have let him drown and saved me quicker. Kane knows for sure now I’ll never leave him. I held on when I could have let go. And Regal knows for sure now that he and I will never happen. But we leave it unsaid because we don’t need to talk about it. At least not yet.
Regal heals Kane and me, and I turn to look out across the land in front of us. It’s every bit as depressing as we were led to believe. I can see the valley in the distance, but first, we have to cross the dry, desolate terrain before us. The terrain stretches for what looks like miles to either side of us, and I can see several piles of sun-bleached bones scattered across the desert.
Behind us, I hear an electric buzzing sound. I turn, and the bridge and the river are gone, replaced by a desert identical to the one before us. There’s only one way to go, and that’s forward.
We could all use a break. We’re all exhausted from what just happened, and no one is in the right frame of mind to continue, but we have no other choice. I step forward and begin to walk. The team follows in deflated silence.
After trudging through the desert for what feels like forever, we are almost in the valley. It sits at the top of a steep, sandy hill, and once we climb that hill, we’ll be able to see exactly what horrors await us.
We can’t go in there like this. It’s like we’re already beaten. I stop abruptly, and motion for the team to gather around me.
“Listen up. I know we’ve had kind of a rough time of it, but we’re all still here. And we’re going to do this, and we’re all getting out of it alive. So, let’s face this like a family, and do it for Remy because the way we are now, we’ve already given up, and Remy wouldn’t want us to give up,” I say.
“Yeah, Atlas is right. We should be happier about facing our imminent deaths,” Perry says, but he’s laughing as he says it.
“At least it’s a bit cooler here. My makeup might even stay in place,” Langston says.
“See, that’s the spirit. You want to look good while you’re facing the toughest mission yet,” Perry says.
Langston turns to him and mock flutters her eyelashes.
“You think I look good?” she says.
“Sure. It’s nothing a change of clothes, a shower, and a three-hour grooming session wouldn’t fix,” he replies.
She punches him playfully as she laughs. The rest of the team laughs with her, and I feel my spirits rise with them.
“Okay, guys. We can do this. Let’s go kick some ass and get that staff,” I say.
“For Remy,” Regal says with a smile.
“For Remy,” the team says together.
We climb the hill quickly now that everyone’s spirits are back up. I reach the crest and finally look down into Vulture Valley.
The valley sits deep down in the bowels of the earth, resting between two sheer cliff faces. The faces are so smooth that once we’re in, the only way out is to keep moving. We won’t be able to climb free, and of course we can’t fly or teleport out. The valley is wider than I expected it to be.
The place has a creepy silence hanging over it. Creatures roam around the ground and fly through the air, but none make a sound. There’s something about the creatures that looks kind of off. I squint and look closer at the birds that fly across the valley.
They aren’t birds. They are scorpions the size of birds. With wings. And two heads. And three stingers. And this is just the entrance. It’s only going to get worse as we cross the valley, but I’m not about to turn back now. I’m fired up and ready to go.
I start down the hill towards the valley floor.
“Look,” Regal says, pointing at the ground.
It’s mostly sand, but it’s littered with dead leaves and twigs.
“That’s what we were told, isn’t it? We have to cross this part of the valley without making a sound. Remember?”
I nod. I remember all too well. If we make a sound, we’ll awaken a deadly creature. How could we forget something like that?
“Wait,” Kane says as I go to step into the valley. “Look where the leaves and twigs are. There’s a path through them.”
I watch his finger trace the path in the air. It’s winding and twisted, and it’ll take us far longer to get through, but he’s right. If we follow the path he’s traced, we’ll avoid the noisy areas of the ground.
Kane steps in front of me.
“Move quickly before I forget the path. And no one speak a word. Not so much as a cough. Okay?”
No one argues, and Kane leads us into the valley. He’s sure-footed, and I stop trying to second-guess him and follow his footsteps, concentrating on remaining silent. Above us, the scorpions fly, ignoring us for now. A pair of vultures circle overhead, waiting for their next meal: us. Occasionally, one of them plucks a scorpion out of the air and gulps it down.
The walls of the valley are teeming with bug-like creatures, and our path takes us closer to them than I would like to go. The bugs are about the size of a large mouse, and they are coated with green sludge that I instinctively know would be poisonous to us. Their feet make a quiet clicking sound as they walk, and that noise worries me more than anything. But nothing is erupting out of anywhere; no deadly creature is attacking.
I realize the vultures above us are squawking now too, and I decide that the creatures that live here can make as much noise as they like. It’s only us who have to remain silent.
We almost make it across, following our winding path, when as one, the scorpions swoop down on us. It’s all I can do to remain silent as they tangle themselves in my hair and wave their stingers around, threatening me but not stinging me. In front of me, Kane fights a similar silent battle with the scorpions, and behind me, the rest of the team does the same.
One of the scorpions scuttles out of my hair and runs across my face. I bite my tongue to keep from screaming as its stinger plunges into my neck. And I feel nothing. The stingers don’t hurt. Their purpose is to scare us into making noise. I wish I could tell the rest of the team, but of course, I can’t.
I pluck one off me and get in front of Kane. I touch its stinger, showing him there’s no threat. He understands the message, and
we turn to the others to show them too. We’re too late.
A scorpion flies onto Langston’s chest. She reaches up to swat it away, but it scuttles aside, watching her with both of its heads. It raises its tail, and she shrieks as she bats it away.
The ground beside her opens up, and something like nothing I’ve ever seen before, and hopefully never will see again, erupts from the ground. It’s made of silver metal, with all hard angles and sharp blades. It glides towards Langston and slashes across her body with its blades. Wide gash marks open up across her front, and she falls to the ground. The thing retreats into the ground as if nothing happened. Only Langston’s mutilated, bleeding body remains to show us that something definitely happened. Something bad.
Without a word, Perry crosses to her bleeding body and bends down and hoists her up into his arms. We have to get out of this section. Regal steps towards them and walks side by side with Perry, healing Langston as we almost run along the winding pathway.
I keep glancing back, and I’m relieved to see the gash marks are closing, the blood no longer pouring from her. Her eyelids are fluttering. We have to get her out of here before she regains consciousness, or we risk her speaking, asking what happened.
I turn back to watch where I’m going as Kane steps off the path and onto ground that isn’t sandy. It’s an awful yellow concrete, almost luminous, but it marks the end of the silent path.
The others follow, and Perry breathes a sigh of relief as he steps onto the yellow ground.
“You’re okay, Langs. You can talk now,” he says.
Langston isn’t bleeding anymore, but her eyes are closed, and she’s still not moving.
Langston lies in Perry’s arms, still and unmoving. He crouches down and places her gently on the ground. I can hardly bear to look. I can’t lose another team member. I won’t lose another team member.
“What’s wrong with her?” I demand. I can hear the hysteria lacing my voice. “Regal healed her. She should be awake by now. Why won’t she wake up?”
Kane places his hand on my arm.
“It’s okay,” he says gently.
