by Obert Skye
Leven pushed himself to his feet and looked around. There were plenty of people speaking, but none of them were talking to him. He tried to spot the Want, who was no longer up behind the polished stump.
The ceiling began to break apart. Not a single nit seemed to care, however. Leven covered his head and ran past a large brick pillar that was collapsing on a swirling group of nits. Since the destruction was accidental, the nits found their lives expiring as quickly as the castle crumbled.
“Move,” the voice sounded again.
Leven looked around, expecting to see the Want. He was not there. Leven moved through the crowd, dodging bits and pieces of the disintegrating castle. Fire broke from the fire pits, climbing the walls and boasting as to its swiftness, flame leaping from any raised point.
Another section of balcony moaned and then slid from the wall, crashing down like a waterfall of brick and mortar, drowning any in it or below it with dirt and stone.
Leven ran down the center of the room, dodging and weaving between nits too hopped-up on others’ dreams to realize the severity of what was happening to them.
The ground wobbled like Jell-O. Leven flew against a wall and into a mess of dream-drugged nits. The remainder of the ceiling started to cave in, pulling the outside walls down with it. Leven worked himself up and moved into a hallway covered with arches. Large masses of dust billowed like storm clouds across the ground.
Leven ran down the arched hallway with the castle imploding behind him. A huge stone blew into the side of his left foot, spinning him around and into a tall pillar.
The castle was done for.
Leven slid against the floor, his head smashing into a stone column that had not yet fallen apart. His eyes crossed and his mind introduced him to a whole new level of darkness.
He was out, but his eyes burned gold beneath the closed lids.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Awkward Moments
Winter was scared. It was a feeling she was not entirely comfortable with. The very caverns they were racing through were simultaneously falling apart and filling with water. The two nits traveling with them, Andrus and Sait, were behind her and Geth was in front, feeling through the darkness for any possible passage or way of escape.
As Lith collapsed, it seemed to be going underwater faster and faster, its expiration date growing closer with each movement of soil.
“It’s a dead end,” Geth shouted back, digging at the wall for any loose rock. “Nothing but stone.”
“I can’t see anything,” Winter said.
“Neither can I,” Sait whined.
Lith shook.
“We’ll have to go back a bit,” Geth said. “Find another way.”
“No,” Andrus complained. “There’s too much water.”
“Well, there’s no way out here,” Geth added. “We have to go back.”
A giant slurping sound echoed in the space behind them.
“Every pocket of air is being filled with water,” Winter said.
Sait started to whimper.
“We could have used your gift now,” Winter added, still disgusted that he had willingly given it away.
“Where’s your gift?” he snapped back.
“Stolen.”
Geth stopped.
He could feel something burning inside of himself. He thought back to being a toothpick and being pinned in the leafy weeds on the banks of the Washita River in Oklahoma. He remembered the feeling of turning his life over to fate—something he had done thousands of times. Since he had stepped back into Foo, however, he had let his feelings focus too much on what he should be doing. He had been upset by Azure’s betrayal, sickened by the Want’s abandonment. Now all his family and those who knew the true ways of Foo were either buried or dead.
Geth couldn’t let that happen to him.
He was a lithen, and because of that he traveled by fate. Here he was showing his lack of faith by digging at a wall for a way out. Geth had stepped off of cliffs and walked through fire in his lifetime, knowing that fate would sort out the effect. He couldn’t stop believing now. His heart felt as if all of Foo rested on his next action.
Geth folded his arms. Winter bumped into him as she moved forward. “What’s happening?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Geth said honestly.
“Then move.”
Andrus and Sait bumped into Winter.
“Are we stuck?” Sait whined.
“No,” Geth said his green eyes dark. “We’re waiting for fate.”
“Did he say death?” Andrus asked, not having heard correctly.
“Perhaps,” Geth answered. “If that’s what fate has in mind.”
“This is ridiculous,” Winter said. She motioned to Andrus and Sait, but it was too dark for them to see her.
The ground shook so violently that even the air was knocked around. Andrus moved closer to the group. Dirt and stone began to tumble all around them. The sound of water splashing and stone tearing was almost deafening.
“We have to get out of here!” Winter screamed. “We’ve got to get to Leven.”
“I know,” Geth hollered back.
“I’m going,” Winter announced. “It’s not fate that we die here standing around.”
Geth grabbed Winter’s arm to stop her, and for a second time seemed to stand still, waiting for her to make up her mind. In that instant she knew. The moment called for trusting in fate.
“I’ll stay,” she yelled.
“I knew you would,” Geth yelled back.
“You’d better not be smiling.”
“I’m not,” Sait said, thinking she was talking to him.
“Nor am I,” Andrus added. “The world is falling apart and we’re just standing here.”
“Hold on,” Geth hollered.
Giant slabs of stone ripped from the cavern walls and pummeled the water. Waves washed over the four of them, trying to knock them down. Lith was breaking up.
“No offense,” Andrus screamed, “but standing here seems like a really stupid strategy.”
“No offense taken,” Geth yelled back. “Hold onto each other.”
All four of them huddled together as Lith pushed downward into the depths of the Veil Sea. The cavern cracked open and the stone that surrounded them relaxed its futile hold and dropped down. Geth leaned protectively over the other three as dirt and water beat against them like an angry rain.
The ground beneath Winter began to slide. “Geth!” she hollered.
Geth pulled her closer to him, moving into Andrus and Sait’s personal space and onto what seemed like the last stable piece of soil. Winter stood on top of Geth’s feet and Sait stood on Andrus’s. Everything was dropping down and away from them.
“Don’t let go of me,” Sait begged.
“We won’t,” Winter yelled.
The rest of Lith’s innards continued to shift and rumble. In what seemed like hundreds of minutes later, the roar of falling objects began to subside. In another five minutes there was nothing but the sound of water far below and silence in the air.
“Look,” Andrus exclaimed, motioning upward with his head. “Light.”
Hundreds of feet above them there was a small crack in the surface of Lith. Small drops of moonlight dripped through and down onto their heads. With each bit that oozed in, the scene around them became clearer.
It wasn’t good.
All four of them were standing on a piece of ground no larger than four square feet. The piece of ground was at the top of a column of thin stone that stretched at least two hundred feet high. They were four people occupying four feet of rock on a precarious pillar in the belly of Lith.
Andrus shifted and the rock column swayed just a bit.
“Don’t do that,” Winter said.
“Sorry,” Andrus said. “My feet are asleep.”
“Are you smiling now?” Winter hissed at Geth.
“We’re alive, aren’t we?” he pointed out.
“I hate to be a problem,
” Sait said. “But I don’t know how much longer I can stand still. My legs are throbbing.”
The moonlight continued to pour in. The crack up above was about five inches wide and a foot long. It was comforting to see the light, but it was an uneasy feeling to realize that it was most likely illuminating their end.
“Could we climb down?” Winter asked.
“I don’t think so,” Geth said. “The second any one of us shifts too much, this whole pillar will collapse.”
“So it was fate’s idea to save us just so it could finish us off in a clever fashion?” Winter asked.
“Maybe we could just jump down,” Andrus said. “It might be nothing but water below.”
“Go ahead,” Winter said.
“I’m just suggesting.”
They had their arms around each other, Winter still on Geth’s toes and Sait on Andrus’s. Dust in the air made Sait sneeze.
The column rocked.
“Don’t do that,” Winter whispered fiercely.
“I can’t help it,” Sait said apologetically.
The moonlight dripped off their heads and spiraled down the column. Geth looked down. There was no sign of a bottom.
“Seriously, Geth,” Winter said. “We have to do something.”
“I know,” he said. “I just can’t think what that something is.”
“Aaachoo!”
The column swayed again, and everyone held on tightly to each other, anticipating that the thin stone support was going to snap at any moment.
“Achoo, achoo!”
Winter was about to plead with Sait to stop breathing in dust when she heard a faint “Gesundheit.”
“Did you hear that?” Winter asked.
“Hear what?” Geth said.
Sait sneezed again.
“Gesundheit.”
“Someone’s up there. Up above us,” Andrus said unnecessarily.
“Hello,” Geth hollered out.
There was a long pause and then the sound of a very familiar voice.
“Toothpick?” Clover yelled down.
“Clover?” Winter yelled up.
“Help us,” Sait yelled out.
“What are you doing down there?” Clover called, his voice echoing off the hollow walls of Lith.
“Never mind that,” Geth said. “Is Leven with you?”
“No,” Clover said. “He’s with the Want. I had to leave.”
“Well, can you find a rope or something?”
“Just give me a minute,” Clover said.
“All right,” Winter answered. “But we probably don’t have much more time than that.”
Andrus’s right foot slipped and he started to fall. Geth held him up with his arms, but Andrus couldn’t support his own weight with just his left foot. It slipped off the lip of the stone pillar, and his body slid down. Geth kept ahold of Andrus’s right arm while Andrus clung to Winter’s ankle with his left hand.
“Don’t let me fall,” Andrus yelled, scraping his feet against the stone column in an attempt to find footing.
“Hurry!” Winter screamed, knowing she couldn’t hold Andrus for much longer.
Sait, who had been standing on Andrus’s toes, fell to his knees. His right knee slipped off the column, but he was able to put his arms around Geth’s and Winter’s legs to keep from falling.
“Really hurry,” Winter yelled.
Geth felt something tickle his nose. He thought at first that it might be a bug, but as it brushed against his arm he could see it was a white strand of thread.
“What’s this?” Geth yelled.
“It’s all I could find,” Clover hollered down. “I took it from those awful people Leven used to live with. They never used it—besides, there’s nothing else long enough to reach you from up here.”
“There’s no way this will support us,” Geth said.
“Just tie it around your waists,” Clover yelled, his voice sounding huge in the echo of the cavern. “I have an idea.”
Geth pulled the thin string down. It was slick and smelled minty.
“That’s going to save us?” Winter said. “It’s dental floss.”
“It’s all we’ve got,” Geth said. “Circle it around your waist and Sait’s a couple of times. Then have Andrus tie the end to himself.”
“We don’t exactly have free hands,” Andrus pointed out.
“We’ll help.”
They worked the dental floss around them twice, using their fingertips and mouths. Eventually they got the end tied to Andrus.
“I don’t want to be a downer,” Andrus said. “But if this is the best we’ve got, we’re going to die.”
Moonlight dripped down through the hole up above and rolled along the length of the dental floss. It circled around them, coating every bit of the floss.
“Interesting,” Geth said.
“Moonlit floss?” Winter said sarcastically, her green eyes huge. “I guess I can stop worrying.”
“Hold on,” Geth said. “If heated, the moonlight here can become quite rigid and strong.”
The next wave of moonlight flowed down the floss, coating the first layer and making the floss even thicker.
“How coated does it have to be to support all of us?” Winter yelled.
The ground began to rumble again.
“I hope not too thick,” Geth answered.
More moonlight raced down the floss, making the rope about a quarter-inch thick.
The ground rumbled even more. Stone from the ground above them broke off and fell down. The thin column their lives were depending on wobbled like a rubbery carrot as the moonlight continued to flow, dripping slowly along the line as it wound around the four of them.
“I can’t hold on much longer,” Andrus said, barely clinging to Winter’s heel.
Geth shifted his hold and tried the strength of the line. “It’s getting there. Hang on.”
“My knee is slipping,” Sait cried. “And I can’t feel my legs.”
“Just hold on,” Geth encouraged.
“This is crazy,” Winter yelled. “We’re waiting for the moonlight to make a strand of dental floss strong enough to hold us? I bet Clover doesn’t even have the other end tied off.”
“That would be a problem,” Geth said calmly.
“That would be a horrible problem,” Andrus wailed.
“I’m going to jump,” Sait said. “There’s got to be water down there. I can hear things splashing into it.”
“If you jump, you take all of us,” Winter said frantically. “And for every splash I hear down there, I also hear a crash.”
“But my knee.”
“And my legs.”
Moonlight spiraled down the floss for another coating, making the string about the width of a heavy plastic cable. The ground shook and the column moved enough to cause Winter to lose her balance. She fell backwards a few inches before Geth was able to steady her. His grabbing ahold of her caused the pillar to sway more.
“I’m going to throw up,” Andrus said.
“I’m going to jump,” Sait threatened again.
The cavern shook, and a spectacular crack rang out as the column snapped in two and dropped to the ground like a gigantic broken arrow.
Winter screamed. Andrus wailed. And Sait passed out as the stone dropped out from beneath them. There was a rush of wind and then a jarring stop as the moonlit floss miraculously held strong. The looping around the four of them wasn’t as perfect as it should have been, but it was holding. Andrus was hanging from his knees, Sait was cinched up to Winter’s left side, and Geth and Winter were tied side by side at the waist. They all four swung like an abstract pendulum.
“Amazing,” Geth chimed in.
The ground above and below continued to rock and rumble.
Clover stuck his head down in the hole and smiled at the sight. “It worked,” he clapped.
“Perfectly,” Geth said.
“Now get us up,” Winter pleaded.
“Up?” Clover asked.
“I guess I hadn’t thought that far. You want to know how I warmed it up?”
“What?” Winter asked, not caring about anything besides getting up and getting untied.
“How I heated up the floss?” Clover clarified.
Only his echo responded.
“I tied the other end to a fantrum tree and then told the tree a bunch of stories about cute girls. I’ve never seen a fantrum tree go so red so fast. It not only heated up the string, it melted a bunch of bark off its crown. I’ve got some great stories.”
“Fantastic,” Winter yelled. “Now get us up.”
“I’m going to need to get some help for that.”
“Well, get it fast,” Andrus whined.
“Right,” Clover said, dashing off, all humor gone from his voice.
Geth and Winter and Andrus and Sait were left to swing under the dripping moonlight.
“You must think fate’s pretty clever,” Winter said, her arms going limp from the loss of circulation.
“I’m never disappointed,” Geth said. “Fate is pretty clever.”
“Clever? I’d write that down if I had a pen,” Andrus said sincerely. “Or a piece of paper. Or actual feeling in my hands.”
“Don’t worry,” Sait said. “He’ll probably say something like it again before the night’s through.”
Winter smiled. The four of them swung gently in the night as the destruction of Lith proceeded.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Swig of Foo
Surprise parties are fun. Unless, of course, the ones waiting to surprise you are a group of murderous thugs who think you took something of value from their possession and now want it back. If that is the case, I suggest you give it to them and run.
Fast.
But the kind of surprise parties with cake and streamers and piñatas that you had no idea were coming can be very satisfying. Who doesn’t like walking into a room where they thought there was nothing but leftovers to discover a ring of friends and a cake? If you meet people who say they wouldn’t like that, do not trust them in any aspect of life. In fact, I suggest you run.
Fast.
Tim was surprised.
It was as if the forces of the universe had gotten together and said, “You know that brilliant garbage man with the pretty wife and two children? Let’s throw him a surprise party that will not only catch him off guard, but will change every thought he ever has from now on.”
