by S R Ahuja
The mountain was steep. Cadwr immediately fell onto his hands so he could half crawl, half run up the hill. Jade started out upright, but the steep incline made her legs ache. Soon enough, she had let herself fall forward and climbing on her hands and feet, she followed after him.
Cadwr looked back every few minutes to make sure she hadn’t fallen, and although Jade rolled her eyes at him every time, she actually appreciated it. Even though Cadwr lived in Lyonés and was therefore probably evil, she didn’t think that he would let her die. At least, he wouldn’t let her die if he could stop it without getting himself killed.
By the time they reached the level ground at the top of the mountain, the full moon was high in the sky. It was a good thing there was a moon too because there were no lights or torches on the mountain and they hadn’t brought any with them. The silvery light from the moon gave everything a blue tinge, but at least they could see where they were going.
After Cadwr pulled himself over the ledge at the top of the mountain, he turned around and grabbed both of Jade’s wrists. He pulled her up until she was on her knees next to him. Once she was on flat, sturdy ground that wouldn’t crumble away beneath her, Jade jumped up. She staggered a little. The climb had taken a long time and she was already exhausted when they had started.
They were not at the top of the mountain, but they were close. They had stopped on a large ledge that was at least as big as her room in the castle. A wall of rock rose out of the ground 20 yards away, perpendicular to the flat space on which they stood. The wall was so tall that Jade could have stood on Cadwr’s shoulders and still not have been able to reach the top of it, with one huge boulder resting against it.
She was absolutely positive that whatever Cadwr thought was too scary for her was on the other side of that boulder. It was silent. All she could hear was the sound of her and Cadwr breathing. She took a small step forward, but Cadwr stuck his arm out in front of her, hitting her in the chest and stopping her from moving forward.
Jade was about to make a noise of protest when she saw his face. He had put the pointer finger on his other hand to his lips and was looking at her meaningfully. She understood immediately and swallowed her cry of outrage.
He started moving along the edge toward the wall of rock but far from the boulder, and Jade followed him. They tried to be as silent as possible. Every time one of them stepped on a particularly dried up chunk of dirt or a dead twig that snapped, both heads would whip toward the boulder to see if It had heard. There was never any movement or any sound from the other side.
Within a few minutes, they were up against the wall, and Cadwr crouched down and began crawling toward the boulder. Every inch closer she got to that thing made her pulse beat faster, but Cadwr was right, she couldn’t turn around now. Not only would she never make it down the mountain without Cadwr’s help, but she had to learn what was hiding up here. She would never forgive herself if she chickened out now.
At the edge of the boulder, Cadwr began to dig. The dirt was dry and hard, but when he beat it with his fist, it crumbled enough for him to get his hands in it. Jade crawled beside him and began to help.
They dug for several minutes until the hole was larger enough for Cadwr to squeeze his body through. Before he moved though, he turned to Jade and put his lips right against her ear.
“If you’re scared, you can wait out here. I’ll still make sure you get back to your precious, princess bed in one piece.”
Jade pulled away so she could glare into his eyes. She mouthed the word “never” and then slunk into the hole before he could so much as grab her ankle.
The cave was completely dark. Jade blinked furiously, but she couldn’t see a thing. She couldn’t even see Cadwr, but she could feel his sudden presence next to her. She reached out her hand into the blackness until she found his arm. She followed it down to his hand and squeezed it. To her surprise, he didn’t shake her off.
It was warm and humid in the cave. Over the sound of her own heart hammering in her chest, she could hear the sound of something very big breathing. Occasionally, there would be a scratching sound as if some gigantic animal was walking across the cave wall, its claws dragging over the stone.
Jade felt the rush of fear flow through her veins, paralyzing her. After several minutes of quiet breathing when the beast did not fly forward to attack her, the panic began to ebb, and she felt herself gaining control of her body once more. First, she held her right hand up to her face and slowly started moving it away from her. She could still see its shape about 12 inches in front of her face, but that was about it.
She let go of Cadwr’s hand to place both of hers on the floor in front of her. It was solid stone but wet to the touch and covered in a gooey substance that she hoped was mud. Crawling on her hands and knees, she inched forward very slightly. Cadwr didn’t move, or at least, she couldn’t hear him move. It was so black in the cave that he might have left her completely and she would never see it.
Slower than a slug’s pace, she crawled forward. Inch by inch, she moved further into the cave. She was terrified that her hands would run across the beast before she saw it, but she could not stop now. Every move she made brought her closer to what must be a very real possibility of death and farther from Cadwr and the outside world that promised what little safety she could achieve in Lyonés. The mud squished between her fingers and under her knees as she crept forward.
A great black shape formed suddenly out of the unintelligible darkness. She stopped moving and held her breath. She could barely make out its shape, but it seemed to be a very large, furry four-legged creature. It was enormous. If she had dared stand, it would have been at least five times as tall as she was.
It was curled into a ball, sleeping, but it’s front paws were close enough to her that she could make out the shape of four very short fingers like a dog’s paws, but the hands had an extra finger to the side that had multiple joints almost like a human thumb, and each finger had a sharp claw that seemed to shine despite the dim light of the cave.
She inched forward again, trying to see the creature’s face. It had a long snout and pointed ears. When she was closer, she could see that the thing’s mouth was open slightly as it slept. A row of brilliantly white teeth lay just within its black lips.
She was leaning her body forward just slightly to look at its closed eyelids when she heard the faintest rustle of clothes on a human body behind her. In less than a second, the beast’s dark eyelids flashed open to reveal two glowing yellow eyes.
The fear flooded her veins and left her paralyzed once again. The creature leapt to its feet, the fur of its back grazing the top of the cave. It curled its body back to spring.
“RUN!” Cadwr shouted.
Cadwr’s call distracted the beast and gave Jade the moment she needed to unfreeze and jump to her feet. She spun on her toes and ran for the cave’s only exit. Cadwr was already gone.
Jade had taken one step forward when her foot fell on something hard and small. She was already unsteady on the wet and muddy floor, and the object made her lose her balance completely, falling face first onto the hard-stone floor. As she was falling, she felt the now growling creature behind her leap forward. The thing’s hands hit the back of her head has she fell, pushing her harder into the ground.
She didn’t have time to put up her hands, and the impact dazed her, but not enough that she could not hear what happened next. There was a great thud followed by a whimper. The giant wolf must have hit the boulder. The next second, there was a crunch of moving rocks as the boulder gave way under the wolf’s impact and started to roll down the mountain.
Jade rolled onto her back and saw stars popping in her vision. She felt the blackness, now so much heavier than before despite the full moon’s light pouring onto her, threaten to pull her under, but one thought stopped it.
Cadwr was outside the cave. She could no longer hear the beast growling, which meant he was either knocked out or had left the cave. She raised her he
ad to see the twitch of a gigantic furry tail as it flicked over the mountain side.
She pulled herself to her knees. Her hands and knees burned, her feet and back ached, and her head throbbed with more pain than she could ever remember feeling in her short life, but she had not come here alone.
With every ounce of determination she had, she began to crawl toward the cliff. She didn’t allow herself to dwell on the pain. She had come here with a partner, and it was her duty to keep him safe. She had an entire army of men waiting at the castle to protect her, but Cadwr had no one.
It took all her mental power to focus her eyes on the furry beast when she reached the mountain’s edge. It was pacing back and forth across another ledge part way down the mountain, tail twitching with impatience.
At first, she couldn’t see Cadwr, but as she followed the wolf’s gaze, she found him. He was dangerously high up in a very skeletal tree. It must have taken her longer than she’d thought to reach the edge because the tree Cadwr was hiding in was more than halfway down the mountain. She had to get to him.
Taking a deep breath, she rose slowly to her feet. Cadwr was at least a hundred yards below her. The hill was so steep, she was terrified that she would fall and not stop falling until she hit the ground. She couldn’t help remembering what Cadwr had said, “you’re probably dead.”
Suddenly, a very distant memory came back to her. She didn’t know how old she was, but she remembered so clearly Aunt Anna coaching her to come down Grandma and Grandpa’s stairs backwards on her tummy because her chubby little toddler legs were too small for steps. Without questioning the sudden thought, she placed herself directly above the tree, turned around and began the long journey down.
Every few feet, she’d glance down to Cadwr. The wolf had stopped pacing and was now putting its front paws against Cadwr’s tree, pushing against it, testing its sturdiness. She climbed faster. As she got closer, she heard the creaking of the tree as the wolf swayed it back and forth. Cadwr must have been clinging to that tree for dear life. When she was less than twenty yards from the tree, she heard a great cracking. Turning her head, she saw the tree snap right where the beast’s paws were pushing. The top of the tree fell in slow motion toward the ground. Just before it hit the ground, Cadwr jumped and rolled a hundred feet down the mountain before he caught himself on a ledge.
“CADWR!” Jade called out to him without thinking.
The wolf turned its head toward Jade, who was now the closer prey, and began running right for her. Cadwr was yelling something at her, but she couldn’t understand. The fear was paralyzing her once more as she watched the beast run at her. Finally, through some small crack in her brain, Cadwr’s words sunk in.
“Let go!” he was yelling. “Let go!”
Without thinking it through, she threw her trust into Cadwr’s words and let go of the rocks she had been clinging to. She fell backward. The first impact knocked all the breath out of her. Once she was on her back, she began sliding down toward the monster. Reaching out with her hands, she was able to turn her body so she started to roll down the steep incline.
She couldn’t see the wolf anymore. In fact, she couldn’t see anything but a whirl of darkness as the world spun around her. Every rock, no matter how small, would raise her body off the ground, and the slam of impact when she came back down stunned her every time. She no longer worried about Cadwr or the wolf. She just fell and rolled and fell again. It was only seconds, although it seemed like hours, when someone reached out and grabbed her hand. Her body was yanked to a stop, hanging from Cadwr’s hand. A sharp pain flashed from her shoulder to her head, and the darkness from the cave threatened to move in across her vision again, but she held onto that hand with both of hers and every ounce of strength left in her.
When the blackness fully cleared from her vision and she looked up, she could see they were not out of danger yet. This was the first time she had seen the monster clearly in the full moonlight. Its thick fur was jet black, and its golden yellow eyes stood out against the night.
Its size was what was most impressive; it was five times bigger than any dog she had ever seen. As she watched it, it rose on its two hind legs to stand like person. With its two hands, it reached for a dead tree below it. Holding onto the tree, it swung its hind legs down the mountain. Suddenly, it had cut the distance between it and them in half.
Jade scrambled to get her feet under her. The distance between them and the base of the mountain was not far, but she thought a fall like that might put her out completely.
“Don’t watch it. Just climb.” Cadwr let go of her hand and began to climb with incredible speed down the mountain.
The calmness in his voice slowed her speeding heart for just a moment, and she began to follow him. She could not climb as fast as him, but she followed his directions. She climbed as fast as she could safely and didn’t once look up at the beast or down at him.
“Amalthea, jump!” she heard from much farther below her than she expected.
She looked down and saw that he was already standing on the flat ground, just ten or so feet below her his arms outstretched. Somehow the hill seemed to have become completely vertical since the last time she’d been there. For the second time that night, she put her faith into Cadwr’s words – forcing down every voice inside her head that was screaming at her to hang on – and pushed against the mountain. The fall lasted only seconds, but it felt like an eternity. She felt the hot, dry air rush against her body before she finally hit Cadwr’s slender but strong arms. He fell forward when he caught her, and she rolled to the ground, relatively unhurt.
Without another word, they both took off running into the sea of brambles. She could hear the wolf’s feet hitting the hard ground behind them, but she did not turn around. There was nothing in her mind now except her feet and the hammering of her heart inside her chest. She felt every jolt of her heel, the ball of her foot, and finally her toes as her foot struck the ground and then pushed off again and again and again.
There was nothing besides the mechanics of her body, the rush of air around her, and the dead branches that smacked her face and arms as she barreled through them. Cadwr was only a few feet ahead of her, and, unlike that afternoon, she was keeping pace with him. The wolf’s claws scratching dirt and deep, heavy breaths were always behind them, getting closer.
At first, Jade didn’t know where they were running to; she was merely following Cadwr’s lead, but as they came over the next hill, she recognized the grey mist in the distance, and she understood Cadwr’s plan. The King had banished all the evil creatures here. There had to be some king of spell or curse that held the monsters in Lyonés.
If they could make it across the border into Avalon, this beast would not be able to pass. They just had to make it another hundred yards, another 50, another 5…
Out of nowhere, something dark and cold appeared before her. Jade ran straight into and bounced back onto the ground. This was the end; Jade knew it. By the time she could get back on her feet, the beast would be upon her. Instead, she lay on the ground and closed her eyes.
Chapter XVII
Orphan
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She waited for the paws to pin her down and rake across her arms; she waited for the teeth to rip into her flesh and end the pain pulsing through every part of her body, but it didn’t come. Slowly, she realized that she could not hear the brute’s claws anymore. The only sound was the omnipresent breathing that was very near her. She opened her eyes and saw what she had run into.
A woman was standing before her. She was dressed in a shapeless black tunic with ripped black tights that revealed large patches of pale skin. The boots on her feet were not made for working; they went up almost to her knees. The heels she stood on were long and skinny, and if the ground had been any softer, they would surely have sunk right through to the heel.
Her hair was jet black and long and stringy and piled on her head haphazardly. Her eyes were blue and so
pale that they nearly blended into the whites of her eyes. Her cheeks were hollow and sunken like she hadn’t eaten a decent meal in a while, but beside the blue eyes and gaunt cheeks, hers was a face that Jade would recognize in any state of consciousness. Aunt Anna had a picture of this woman sitting on her nightstand. Although the woman in that picture had been much younger and healthier and had brown hair and eyes, this was clearly the same woman. This woman was Jade’s mother.
Fay Evelyn Green stared into the eyes of her daughter and did not smile. Her face held no emotion. It was blank as if she was bored.
“Get up.” Jade’s mother whispered the words, but the ice in her voice stung Jade’s heart as though she had shouted them.
Jade rose to her feet, all the while keeping her eyes trained on her mother’s ice blues. She did not look away.
“Get out of the way,” her mother whispered calmly.
Jade finally took her eyes off her face to look around. Cadwr had stopped running too; he was standing a few feet behind the woman. Jade turned to see that the wolf was indeed still there, but he was frozen in mid pounce. This woman clearly had some amount of magic.
Jade hurried around the woman to stand beside Cadwr. His demeanor had changed. When they were running, he had been scared and desperate, but Jade had known he would not leave her behind. Now he was cold and indifferent, mirroring the woman standing in front of them. Jade did not know this woman, and she was beginning to fear that she did not know this Cadwr either.
She was suddenly flooded with more fear than she had felt even as she faced the giant wolf.
This time, she did not freeze; this time, she turned and ran. They were only a few yards from the white mist, and before the woman or Cadwr could realize she was running, the fog had swallowed her up.
As soon as she was in the mist, she heard a deep male voice calling, “Amalthea!”
“I’m here!” her voice was hoarse, but she cried the words with as much volume as she could muster.
