Eliza's Shadow

by Catherine Wittmack

I scowled at Eudora as her eyes narrowed, boring into mine.

  “Your mother and I made a deal, you see. A gift was given to her but she gave nothing in return. She broke the contract and she owes me a gift. One you are qualified to give.”

  I shivered.

  Her wings fluttered dramatically. She rose off the ground and hovered menacingly over me.

  “Give me your powers and you and your mother may leave.” She offered. “Refuse and you remain here, in Merepen Hallow for all your days. One way or another, Eliza, I will claim the power you hold.” She said venomously.

  I cowered below the expanse of Eudora’s massive shimmering wings and piercing gaze. Cora’s warning came to mind. Nereid’s can’t be trusted. There had to be another way out of this place besides striking a deal with Eudora but I couldn’t think of an alternative.

  “Give me a little time… to consider your offer.” I answered quickly and stumbled backwards away from her encroaching wings.

  Eudora’s eyes widened again and her lips twitched conveying her amusement.

  “Certainly, Eliza, you are quite welcome to take as much time as you would like.” A twisted smile stretched across her face.

  She obviously didn’t know that I was fully aware of how dangerous it was for me to stay in Merepen Hallow. Every moment I spent in the catacombs taxed my senses threatening my tie to the human world and ability to reason. I had no intention of staying much longer but I desperately needed time to come up with a plan.

  Eudora’s wings fluttered. She drifted back high in the air and resumed her perch on the wall. The sentries returned to my side and quickly cocooned me in their slick tentacles. My heart sank as I bobbed around in darkness carried back toward my prison.

  25

  I lay on my bed, the scent of sun lingered on the pillow. How clever the nereids were creating a prison that looked, smelled and felt like the safest place in the world to me. The place that reminded me in every way of how important my mother was to me, the place where we spent our last moments together. The place so saturated with emotion that I had difficulty thinking straight.

  The amulet was gone, the covenant that I’d hoped would protect me vanished, and I had a decision to make. I rolled from my face to my back to stare at the ceiling. It seemed I had been really stupid to come here without a better plan and now I wondered what I had been thinking, why I had been so confident I would find a way to save my mother and escape from this place with the few powers I’d developed over mere months. Clearly, my talents against the magic of the nereids would be like raindrops on an oil slick, now it looked like I’d be giving them up to wicked Eudora.

  I rolled to my side and read the spines of the books lining the bookshelf, remembering all the hours I had spent laying on my bed as a child reading, memorizing the stories. I slumped off the bed, ambled over to the shelf and pulled out one of my favorites, Matilda, and began to flip through the pages.

  A line jumped off the page as if it had been waiting for me.

  So, Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.

  Suddenly, my senses sharpened and I acutely felt the smooth cover of the book in my hands and the weight of it on my palms. I stared at the succession of black typed letters marching boldly across the yellowing pages and my mind raced after them. I thought of the hours I’d spent practicing with Ren and Nan and most importantly my books. The primer!

  what lies Behind the eyes commands the hands, the Heart guards the key, an unwise tongue may be silenced forever.

  As if on cue, there was a faint flutter of wings beyond the door. The primer knew I would end up here! I’d escaped a prison before and freed little Benjamin to boot. I wasn’t as ill prepared as I thought. Maybe, just maybe, I could do it again.

  As much as I would have liked to prepare, ponder, practice and practice again before enacting my hasty plan there wasn’t time. Besides the fact that every moment I spent in the prison sucked on my mental faculties like a leech, I hadn’t heard the sound of a nereid outside my door in hours. If there was a creature that could lead me to my mother beyond it, now was the time to find out.

  For mind manipulation to work I needed to not only grasp the nereid’s attention but stir its emotions, a task I wasn’t sure was even possible. With a deep breath I jumped to my feet and rushed toward the door hoping I wasn’t too late. I pounded furiously on it and yelled,

  “Hello! I’ve made a decision! I need to speak with Eudora right away!”

  There was no sound on the other side of the door so I continued to pound and shout until my fist ached. I waited for a response. The doorknob turned. I stepped back allowing the door to swing wide and mentally prepared for attack.

  The creature on the other side gave me a shock. Expecting the scylla, I was surprised to see the sprite nereid smirking in the tunnel.

  “Eudora will be so pleased to hear your decision.” She said in a tinkling voice. Her large amber eyes narrowed and searched my face as her mossy green wings began to spread behind her. I needed to get her attention fast before she called the scylla.

  “Does Eudora share the powers she steals from others with you?” It was a dangerous question but the only thing I could think of with the potential to stop the nereid in her tracks and peak her emotions, if she had any.

  She cocked her head and her gaze widened with intrigue. One edge of her smile rose leaving an expression of contempt. Bingo. The question stirred something in her and right now, I wasn’t picky.

  “What’s your name? I don’t think we were ever properly introduced.” I asserted quickly drawing her in further.

  The mossy wings slowly collapsed behind her and the nereid shifted from foot to foot before me considering her response.

  “Mizell.” She snapped staring intently at my face.

  This was my chance. I pressed the issue further.

  “Well, does Eudora share or does she keep all her spoils for herself?” I bated Mizell. As she considered the question, I set to work.

  Take me to my mother. Take me to my mother. Take me to my mother.

  Mizell’s gaze remained fixed on mine but I couldn’t detect whether the mind manipulation procedure was working or not. Nothing changed in those large glassy eyes and it was impossible to see past them into her mysterious nereid mind.

  Yet. She didn’t answer the question.

  I doubled my effort.

  Take me to my mother take me to my mother take me to my mother take me to my mother take me to my mother.

  Mizell’s lithe hand shot from her side and fastened around my wrist like a vise. Her already large feline eyes expanded even wider as she stared into mine. Her green wings exploded behind her and flapped, folding around me, their edges grazed my shoulders.

  Then her gaze broke from mine and she stared off down a tunnel I hadn’t been taken before. My heart lifted. Maybe it had worked. I continued to chant the instruction in my head, over and over again, just to be sure.

  Take me to my mother take me to my mother take me to my mother.

  Mizell’s wings flapped and she floated off the ground. Her fingers remained tightly fastened around my wrist and my arm stretched high in the air along with her. My feet lifted off the ground and in a flash we were off.

  Mizell soared down the tunnel, with me dangling loosely at her side. I swayed and wriggled in the air, like a kite in the breeze but was too concerned with breaking her concentration to protest. We dashed and darted down tunnel after tunnel, some wide, others narrow until we arrived at another door. This one made my heart leap to my throat.

  It was the back door of our house in Moco! The top of the white painted door was glass. Neat gingham curtains obscured the view inside. If my mother was hidden anywhere in the nereid catacombs, she was behind that door, I was certain of it.

  Mizell’s wings slowed and she grac
efully sank to the floor. Without wings to temper my landing, I fell with a thud onto the polished white stone. I scrambled to my feet and looked up at Mizell to assess her mood. She stood silent and as blank as the scylla, staring at the door. There was no doubt the procedure had worked but now I wasn’t sure what to do next.

  I moved toward the door and reached for the doorknob. It was locked. I knocked. There was no sound from the other side. Anxiously, I glanced back at Mizell, who remained blank faced and knocked again.

  Finally, there was a rustling movement from the other side. The doorknob turned and as the door cracked, my breath caught in my chest. I blinked discovering that Shadows did not cry when she finally stood before me.

  “Mother!” I choked.

  My mother stood in the doorway smiling but her eyes were wide and vacant.

  “Hello.” She answered pleasantly though it was obvious she didn’t recognize me.

  “Mother, it’s me Eliza! I’m here... I’m here to take you home.” I stammered quickly reaching for her hand.

  My mother’s hand was cold and limp in mine and she pulled away from me when I tried to tug her across the threshold. Her brow creased with confusion when she looked at me. It was as if she didn’t really see me, like she looked straight through me.

  It was then that I recognized the face before me, not from my childhood or photographs but somewhere else… the cistern in Nan’s greenhouse. The woman standing before me was not my mother. She was someone else, a shell of the woman she was when she was kidnapped.

  “I was just frosting a cake. Would you like to come inside and have a piece?” She asked cheerfully as if she hadn’t heard a word I said.

  I shot a wary glance back at Mizell to make sure she was safely enchanted before agreeing to step inside. Just as my bedroom had been transferred to the nereid realm, the kitchen was eerily identical to the actual room in our home. Half of the white cupboards were open revealing baking ingredients and cookware and the counters were strewn with flour and sugar, eggs and pans. A warm sweet smell filled the room and for an instant I was completely transported to a happy space in my memory.

  It was a wicked illusion. Standing in my kitchen with my mother, the scent of cake wafting around me. It could have been a birthday, a holiday or an everyday celebration but it wasn’t. We were prisoners and the woman standing next to me had no idea who I was.

  Mother glided across the floor and spooned homemade icing from a bowl below the mixer onto a yellow cake. I desperately needed to reach her. There had to be some remnant of me hidden in her memory that the fairy realm had not corrupted.

  “What’s the occasion?” I asked carefully, watching her expression.

  She looked up from the task of frosting and stared across the room, a puzzled expression crossed her face.

  “Occasion?” She asked as if the concept hadn’t occurred to her.

  “Well, usually people make a cake for special occasions like a birthday or something.” I explained.

  Mother’s forehead creased as she thought about my question.

  “Oh, well, I suppose there’s a reason but I can’t remember it now.” She responded dismissively with a shrug and returned to her frosting.

  She began to hum, a song I remembered. I hummed along with her. She heard me singing and looked up again and furrowed her brow.

  “Have we met before?” She asked studying my face.

  “Oh yes, you’ve known me my whole life. I’m your daughter, Eliza.” I said gently.

  A look of disbelief crossed mother’s face and she shook her head as if she didn’t understand what I’d just told her.

  I tapped my toes against the wooden floor. The scent of home was deceiving and I could feel myself losing focus. I needed to get out of there and I had to get my mother to come with me.

  “Listen, Nia, that’s your name isn’t it?” I asked.

  “Maybe.” Mother answered again with a shrug.

  “Ok, well, Nia, I need you to come with me now. I promise that we can make a cake when we get out of here.” I added impatiently and moved toward the counter to grasp her hand.

  When I took her hand she looked up at me, really looked at me. I could tell she was desperately trying to place me. There was a glimmer of hope.

  “You seem familiar.” She said thoughtfully.

  “I’m sure I do.” I added with a hint of sarcasm and tugged her away from the counter.

  “But my cake…” She said, her voice trailing as she glanced toward the half frosted cake on the counter.

  “We’ll make another one as soon as we get out of here. Really, I promise. Please, we need to go.” I said hastily and finally tugged her out the door.

  My mother glanced around the tunnel. Her face contorted in an expression of confusion and fright. I rushed toward Mizell.

  “Mizell.” I said firmly.

  Mizell turned her large cat eyes toward mine and a creeping feeling spread across my shoulders. Something fierce flashed in her gaze and I knew instantly that I’d lost her. Wings of panic took flight in my chest.

  “Eliza.” Mizell’s voice sliced through me like a shard of glass and her eyes narrowed to slits.

  I held mother’s hand tightly and frantically searched the tunnels before us but it was no use. Mizell’s wings were spread and she was antagonistically flitting around us like a bird of prey. The distant whir of approaching wings flooded from the tunnels around us. Within seconds the scylla surrounded us.

  “You may have fooled me once, Eliza, but it won’t happen again. I look forward to learning that little trick of yours once you’ve handed it over to Eudora.” She snapped.

  Fearful of exciting the scylla, I clamped my mouth shut and stood closer to my mother. Her eyes grew wide and she looked even more confused as if she’d never seen the nereids before, which couldn’t have been possible. I wondered how long she’d been trapped in the kitchen.

  “Take them, both of them.” Mizell ordered fiercely to the scylla.

  They closed in on us. With the hopes of avoiding separation, I wrapped my arms tightly around my mother. She automatically clung to me in return but it didn’t matter. The scylla pulled us apart and bundled each of us in tentacles. I frantically peered through the tentacles around my head to watch the cocoon that was my mother disappear down one of the tunnels before the scylla carrying me soared after it.

  My confidence shattered, I resigned myself to handing over my powers to Eudora the instant I had a chance. I hoped my stunt with Mizell didn’t give Eudora the excuse she was hoping for to keep us from leaving Merepen Hallow. The drone of the scylla’s beating wings punctuated the crestfallen thud I felt in my chest, where my heart should have been beating.

  The whir of the wings began to die down until the only sound I heard was the rhythmic flapping of the pair that carried me toward Eudora. We were close. I pinched my eyes closed and struggled to focus on the task at hand. The time I’d spent in the fairy realm blurred my concentration and made it difficult for me to think clearly.

  By the time we arrived in Eudora’s forum, I was methodically repeating my intentions over and over again in my head. Staying clearheaded was the only way my mother and I would never escape. The tentacles slipped and with them I tumbled to the ground with a thud.

  “I understand you’ve made a decision, Eliza.” Eudora’s voice boomed and echoed against the high walls of the cavernous room.

  Everything was growing fuzzy and confusion began to gnaw on the edges of my mind. I struggled to hang on to my consciousness. I searched the room quickly and found mother sprawled across the floor on the other side of the room.

  Eudora leaned eagerly from her perch high on the wall. Her deep purple eyes stared wildly at me. Her long hair billowed and crawled like snakes along the wall outside of her egg shaped perch.

  “Take them, just take my powers if that’s what you want but you have to promise that you’ll let us go.” I shouted fiercely up at her.

  At that, she sprung from her perc
h, her wings fanned behind her carrying her to the floor.

  “As I said before and I’ll say again, dear Eliza, I am not without scruples, nor one to disregard the ancient laws of conduct. I shall not take a gift from you without formalizing a covenant between us. A covenant that once made will bind us forever until reclaimed.” She said, her voice a slippery serpent weaseling its way toward me.

  I had to focus hard on Eudora’s words to absorb their meaning. Confusion was chipping away at my defenses and threatening to overthrow my good judgment. I shot a worried look toward mother. If I stayed here, in time, I’d become as forlorn as her.

  “How will I know I have your word?” I demanded, working hard to conceal my struggle from Eudora.

  She flitted back and forth before me like a cobra ready to strike. A twisted smile danced on her calculating face. She extended one of her pale, slender arms. With her eyes locked on mine, she flexed the long fingers of her other hand and a set of needle sharp nails sprung from her fingertips, like the claws of a cat. With lightning speed she plunged her index fingernail into the wrist of her other arm. When she removed it, a spurt of dark purple blood sprung from the wound and wept onto the floor between us leaving gooey droplets.

  “Give me your hand, Eliza.” Eudora said in a steely whisper.

  I recoiled in disgust imagining her nails skewering my wrist.

  Eudora smirked. “Do not fear, Eliza, you have no blood to give. Besides, the price you owe is worth something much more valuable. Now extend your hand to receive my promise.” She commanded.

  My hand floated from my side as if by its own volition and displayed itself, palm up. Eudora drifted closer, lifted her dripping wrist high in the air above my hand and began to speak.

  Blood of mine, a promise made

  To collect upon a gift of late

  In return, freedom gave

  Forever bound with the saved

  Her voice slithered down the column of purple blood pooling in my palm. The pool in my hand grew heavy and hard and before my eyes the blood transformed into a dark red stone that curved and shimmered into the shape of a water lily, like the amulet I had brought with me to Merepen Hallow. But unlike the amulet, this stone sparkled like a live flower. From the look of this stone, I understood why Eudora considered the amulet stale.