“Orange magic is rare. Mom had it too. She told me to hide it like she did, always hide it, never show it. I don't have to hide anymore. I can show it now.” Hael picked up a glittering rock and held it toward Elan. She concentrated on its crystalline core and drew forth an orange glow. “I don't know what it's for yet. I can hurt with it. I can glow things. I can't make orange from nothing, though. I need a light orb or something solid like crystal or ore. It's not like the little magics, blue light and bubbles from nothing. It's something different. I don't know what it means.”
“You'll learn.” Elan's pointed ears rotated backward and he flinched. “Shhh. I hear something.”
“Everyone quiet,” Hael said. The whispering and harvesting ceased as everyone turned to stare at her. She clutched the glowing stone and closed her eyes.
Click. Click. Click click. The distinctive sound of claws on stone assaulted her ears. The air shifted, revealing mingled stenches of sulfur and excrement.
Hael opened her eyes and sprang to her feet. Her hand drifted to the Varaku knife on her belt. She stepped around Elan and ducked beneath a stalagmite. “Everyone behind me unless you can fight. When I tell you to run, take the path behind Elan.”
“What is it?” Min asked. She crouched next to Itrek, who stared up at Hael with listless eyes.
Itrek grinned, revealing a wide display of pointed teeth, but then his shoulders slumped and the grin fell into a grimace. “Tunnel wolves. Too bad you've come this far only to die. You were so close.”
“Min, Saem, take our prisoner into the path.” Hael kicked Itrek's knee as she passed him. “If he falls again, leave him.”
Hael unsheathed the knife and held it ready as she approached the cavern mouth. A small group of people clustered behind her, improvised or stolen weapons in hand.
Click. Click. Click. They were already here.
“Run!” Hael yelled. Bare feet padded the soft ground as the Uldru escaped into the opposite passage. The few who stayed shifted and whimpered. They'd fought with her before and she knew they were capable, but tunnel wolves were not Varaku. They were worse.
“Hawooooooo!” The alpha wolf screamed as its stalked eyes caught the orange light of Hael's stone. A horned, hairless snout sniffed the air and the spikes adorning the beast's muscular body rattled. A yellow-green, stinger-tipped bulb illuminated the dark as the wolf's tail tip came into view. It howled again, revealing double rows of sharp black teeth.
Hael's hands grew cold and her knees trembled, but she remained still. Tunnel wolves had poor vision and she hoped she was dirty enough to smell more like a stone than a meal. Quiet now, breathe slowly. The glowing rock slowly rotated above her palm, each rotation elongating it a little more.
“Hawooooooo!” The alpha howled again.
“Yip! Yip! Yip!” The rest of the pack appeared behind the alpha, a mass of spikes and tail bulbs and stalked eyes. They sniffed the air and clawed at the dirt. There were dozens of them, the biggest pack Hael had ever heard of. They had likely been tracking Hael's people for several cycles and were now ready to feast.
Hael's heart raced. If she failed here, she failed her people. They lived or died because of her. Trust the magic, trust the magic, trust the magic. No. Not the magic. Trust myself. She closed her eyes and slowly stretched her arms to her sides. She breathed in the air, the stone, the strange detritus. Copper. The walls were full of copper. She could work with that.
“Hawooooooo!” The wolves howled in unison. The cavern mouth trembled, threatening to throw Hael to her knees. Mustn't fall. Mustn't fear.
“Hael?” someone behind her whispered. The fighters stepped closer to her.
She rotated her wrist in a gesture of warning. “No. Stay back. Let me try. If I fail, you fight.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Reveal my magic.”
Closer. Closer. Clicking talons and rattling spikes. Fresh blood dripped from snapping jaws. They had recently eaten and were hungry for more. What had they eaten? Who had they eaten? Had they found the five Uldru who deserted while Hael slept?
Click. Click. Click.
“Hawooooooo!” The alpha's muscles rippled. It was close now, so close Hael smelled its rotting, sulfurous breath. If it swung that tail spike into her, the venom would kill her within a few heartbeats.
Now. Close enough.
Hael's outstretched arms swung inward, pulling the orange magic within the copper. The copper elongated into rays and shot through the stone as glowing needles. Her chilled hands warmed as they approached each other.
Clap!
Hundreds of copper needles broke free of the walls and flew into the passage, into the tunnel wolves. They yelped as the metal skewered their bodies and fell limp, some mid-pounce. The orange glow enveloped them, revealing the filth and gore caked in their gray spikes. Eddies swirled across the dusty floor, sending the dripping blood splattering upon the needles and walls.
Hael pulled her hands apart and the copper partially-retreated into the stone. Bodies dropped to the ground. Tangled and pierced tail bulbs faded to black. Not a wolf still lived.
“Hael?”
She shook her head. She was still guiding the copper back to its nodes. The orange glow faded and was replaced by blue orb light.
“Hael? What was that?”
There. Everything was back in its place. She coughed and took a step back from the dead alpha. “That was me. I have no blue magic. Those of you who saw me in Vetarex already knew that. Don't be afraid. I will protect us. I know how to.”
“We will follow you.”
Hael spun on her heels. The eyes she greeted were not fearful as she expected, but instead awestruck.
A buzz sounded near her ear. She held up her hand to bat it away, then thought better of it. A tiny winged creature hovered near her shoulder. Copper sprite.
“You have a good omen,” one of the fighters said.
Hael turned slightly and tilted her head to inspect her new companion. The creature was only as long as her middle finger, Uldru in general shape but with metallic wings. Hael drew a small iron pin from the pouch on her belt and handed it to the sprite. They were good luck, but only if appeased with metal trinkets. The sprite plucked the pin from her fingers and giggled.
Hael blew a kiss to the tiny sprite. She smiled and whispered, “Hello, little friend. Will you show us the way to The Above? I have more treasures for you if you help us find it.”
The sprite giggled again, then zipped between the fighters and into the opposite tunnel, where nearly three dozen pairs of curious Uldru eyes sparkled. They hadn't run like they'd been told. They'd stayed behind to watch Hael fight the wolves. Her people were no longer obedient without question. Hael smiled to herself. Obedience was never what she wanted from them, only earned respect and friendship.
Hael sheathed her knife and walked toward the tunnel. The air was already fresher in this direction, newer. She grinned at the refugees as she passed them and said, “We're safe again. Let's follow the sprite.”
IT WAS WARM IN THIS tunnel, much warmer than it had been before, and the air moved with fragrant turbulence. Aside from the damp smell of mud, Hael couldn't identify any of the scents that drifted into her nose and across her tongue. She closed her eyes and listened. It was loud here, too, a continuous roar.
“I think we're near a waterfall,” she said, and her words surprised her. There was a waterfall in Vetarex, but this sound was different. It was hollow, as if the water were being released into a massive, empty cavern with walls that did not echo. This was something new.
Elan gripped her forearm. “Listen. Do you hear that? The whistle?”
Hael searched beyond the roar and found a faint melody. Four notes, only four high-pitched notes, but it repeated. “What is that?”
Elan pursed his lips and imitated the melody. He hid his shudder within a shrug. “I don't know. It smells so strange here.”
Hael pried his fingernails out of her arm and looked toward
the sprite. The tiny creature was still with them, and she occasionally offered it a new pin to keep it happy. It seemed to be working. The sprite had already led them for two cycles and it was clear it had brought the Uldru to somewhere new.
Behind her, Itrek whimpered. He was having difficulty walking and often needed to be dragged. Hael had let him feed on the smallest of the wolves, but she still suspected he would die soon. It wouldn't bother her if he did. The sprite was guiding them now and she only kept the young Varaku alive because she couldn't bring herself to actively kill him.
“Hael.” His voice was a weak whisper, laced with pain.
He had never called her by name before, never called her by anything more than an insult. She turned around to face him.
Itrek shied away. His heavy chains clanked against the floor. “Hael, let me go. I need to go back to the wolves. If there is any meat left on them I need to eat it. That's all that will keep me alive now. This place . . . I feel nothing but dread here. Varaku aren't meant to come here. Let me go. Please. I won't bother any of you. I'll leave and find my way back down in the dark.”
Hael grabbed the chain around his neck and yanked him forward. He stumbled and let out a sharp yelp as his knees hit the loose stones covering the ground. Now he was at eye-level with her, and his diamond-shaped pupils dilated.
“No,” she said, her voice no louder than his. “You are bound to me now, monster. The only freedom I'll allow you will be your death, and I won't hasten it by my own hand. I'll give you pain. I'll give you fear. I'll give you the slow death your starvation is bringing you now. While you still live, you can't be free of me. May the spirit of every Uldru killed by a Varaku haunt you now and beyond your death. Don't beg me for your life again, or for your death. I won't grant you either.”
Itrek's tentacles fell flat against his head and neck. All four of his sinewy arms trembled. “I am at your mercy.”
Hael straightened her shoulders and tugged again on Itrek's chain. “Come with me. The two of us go first. Min and Elan, keep your weapons ready. If he tries to bite me, hurt him.”
“I won't bite you,” Itrek mumbled. “Why would I kill the only person who wants to keep me alive?”
“So I'm a person now?” Hael said as she lead him forward. The roar quickly grew louder. They were close to the source. “Varaku never call Uldru people. I don't want you alive, but I want you to suffer until you die on your own. The longer you're alive, the more you suffer. The Jarrah talked about penance. This is yours.”
He remained silent as she dragged him up a slippery hill. The others trailed close behind, their blue orbs nearly masking the slow transition of the passage from black to murky gray. Something ahead gave light. The sprite buzzed past her ear and out of sight, then circled back to sit on her shoulder. It released a high-pitched “Eep!” then scurried across her back to her other shoulder.
Lighter, lighter, and lighter still. The roar was deafening now, and if anyone behind her spoke she couldn't hear. Moist air licked her face and silver vapor danced through the gray haze.
“Hael. It hurts.” Itrek whimpered, and the pinch of his voice told her his pain was true.
“What does?”
“The light. It hurts. It burns.”
She loosened her grip on the chain as she stared at him. Water droplets sizzled as they contacted his blistering skin, releasing a dense cloud of steam. This wouldn't do. He'd have to wait in the dark until Hael figured out what was ahead. “Min, take him down a little bit until he's not fizzling anymore. Something new is ahead. Elan, come with me.”
“I told you,” Itrek said, shaking his head. “Smell the air. Listen. We are near the surface, and you will be burned alive. That's all that's out there. Fire and ash.”
“And water.” Hael dropped the chain and stepped back from him. “Water doesn't fall where there is fire. The air smells of life, not death. I will risk burning to see what lies ahead.”
Itrek's shoulders quaked as Min and the other guards dragged him backward. “You are going to die. The light will kill you.”
“Then it kills me.” Hael reached for Elan's hand and squeezed. “You don't have to come. You can wait here where it's safe until I come back.”
Elan shook his head. “No. I want to see.”
The sprite flew forward. Hand in hand, Hael and Elan followed. Lighter, lighter, ever lighter. Hael shielded her eyes against the all-consuming glow.
And then she saw it.
The passage opened into a waterfall, and in the tiny strip of world she could see beyond the waterfall sat a bright expanse of blue and green. The ceiling of the cavern was blue. No, not a ceiling. There was no ceiling, only a void. This wasn't a cavern.
“Too bright,” Elan whimpered.
“Yes, it is.” Hael retreated several steps, back around the corner where the light was tolerable.
“We can't go out there. We'll be blinded. What do we do now?”
Hael braced herself against the wet stones. She touched a patch of spindly green sprouting from dark clay. The plants weren't fungi or any sort of cave bloom. She had no idea what they could be. “When I was listening to the Jarrah, I heard them say words I didn't understand. Sun. Day. Moon. Night. I did understand darkness, though. I think it isn't always bright in The Above. We should wait a while, maybe two or three cycles, and see what happens to the light. It might change. If it gets darker, we'll see what's beyond the waterfall. Go tell the others, and they can come see for themselves if they like.”
“No, you tell them,” Elan said. He looked strange in this gray light. Pale and shimmering silver. His wide eyes were the same color as the plant beneath Hael's fingers. “Go tell them, and then show them where you led us. They will follow you into The Above if the light changes, but only if you stop being afraid. Don't let them see you trembling like this.”
Hael nodded and stepped away from the wall. “I no longer fear. I tremble because I'm excited. We're going to walk into another world, and it's real.” She pulled him into an embrace and kissed his brow. “I love you, little brother. No matter what we find ahead, remember that I love you.”
7
Benny
“No, no, no! Don't let her take me!”
“Belinda, no... Don't do this. Please. Radella needs her. Ranalae...”
Benny woke drenched in cold sweat, Radamar's voice still reverberating off the walls of her mind. She shivered and pulled the blanket tight around her shoulders. Moonlight and dragon scale . . . she was still escaping the edge of the dream, and her own memories filled in Ranalae's response.
“She is a failed attempt. We both saw what she did. It is not safe to keep her near the child anymore. For your daughter's sake, cousin, I must take Belinda somewhere safe . . . somewhere we are safe from her.”
Benny gasped and sat upright. The visual remnants of the dream faded into the gloaming light, leaving her with only those few parting words. She dropped the blanket and reached both arms forward. Too much time dampened, and she glowed blue from fingertips to elbows. Azure sparks arced from one palm to the other, igniting tiny tingles in her hands with each contact. She shook away the excess energy and hugged her knees. The remaining light absorbed into her shins.
Juna stared at her from across the campfire. The colors of his eyes and skin echoed the embers between them. The ocean roared behind him, turbulent ahead of an approaching storm. Lightning flashed in the distance, but the clouds suggested the worst of it would stay offshore.
To Benny's left, Mordegan released a snore. He rubbed his nose, then rolled off his blanket and onto the sand.
“You called for her again. That's when you started to glow.” Juna raked his fingers through his dark hair.
“Radella?” Benny asked. She reached under her blanket to remove a sharp rock that had surfaced during her sleep.
“Mmm-hmm.” Juna picked up a dried length of driftwood and tossed it onto the small fire. Blue cinders hissed, then settled to red. “Sleep magic doesn't seem safe.”
>
“It isn't. I need to buy some . . . some medication when we find a village. It's safer if I don't dream until my magic settles.”
“You would take away when you remember her best?”
Benny stretched, then rubbed the back of her neck. She was sore, sorer than she ever would have been for so little effort before her imprisonment. After a week of freedom, simply walking fatigued her, and she knew it would only get worse once they left the skiff behind and headed inland. Life in the cell had left her soft and weak, and her once athletic body now felt foreign. Her aching muscles and joints were hesitant to respond to her calls for movement. “I don't want to, but like I said, it's safer. And it's temporary. You talk in your sleep too, you know. Who's Maru?”
Juna closed his eyes and rubbed his brow. “My son. He was little when he died. First time in the mines. Varaku put the tiniest children, the ones not healthy enough to survive long, in the vent tunnels so they can find where they go. His tunnel collapsed behind him. Dead end tunnel. We heard him cry for two sleep cycles before he was silent. I was sent to the dragon forge after that.”
“I'm sorry.” Benny let her hands drop into the sand. The grains were cold between her fingers, but dry. They were camped high enough on the beach to avoid even the highest of tides. “I didn't know you had a child. You look too young.”
“I don't know how old I am. None of my people do.” Juna shrugged and looked away. “Uldru who are what the Varaku want, who are strong and compliant, are sent to the breeding stables at maturity. We're paired, make more slaves, and either bred until we die or sent back into the hive with the expectation that if we survive long enough we'll have more babies. They like to keep families together to make us more docile, but children are as likely to die as to survive. Both of mine died. And their mother. My mate died three cycles before we were freed. She fell asleep at her anvil and the foreman killed her and ate her. That's Uldru life. Death is just something to be expected. It's different now, for those of us who are free. New and we're learning. Still dangerous, but different. Better.”
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