by Brindi Quinn
“All right, my angel, it’s time for you to give me your tears.”
I looked up at him. Into the cherries of his eyes.
“I’ll try, but I still don’t know if I’ll be able to.”
“Don’t worry,” assured Darch. “We’ll help you.”
They’ll help?
Darch and Ardette put their hands on my forehead. Darch’s hand was sweaty, Ardette’s dry. I waited for some sort of sorrow to flood me. Some sort of prodding. But nothing came.
Should I go there? To the place where Illuma slept. The place where the sadness of being separated resided. The place where the sorrow of being unable to rescue her hid. I might have to after all.
Ardette and Darch said nothing. Their eyes were closed. Mine were open.
I was going to go there. I was going to open it up – open the tap, even if it meant never being able to close it again. It would be painful, but I had to do it. I took a deep breath . . .
But then I heard something that made me close the bindings back up before I’d even begun. It was a loud, alarming sound like thudding, angry footsteps. And then the sound was amplified, and there were many more.
The next sequence happened too fast for me to accurately recount.
“They’ve found us!” cried Darch, jerking his hand from my forehead.
What?!
At the same time, Ardette dropped his hand and pulled out his saber.
I searched his face for reassurance. “They?!”
“Druelca!” he said, his voice hushed and frantic.
“What?!” I jumped up, and the basin fell from my lap, spilling shadow onto the ground. Like one consciousness, the shadow slithered back into the pit, rejoining its lost counterpart. It was an extraordinary thing to witness, but I had no time to marvel.
“What are you talking about? Druelca’s here?!”
But my question was answered not by Darch and Ardette, but by the sinister soldiers themselves. Just then, no more than five Daems in onyx cloaks came charging from some offshoot of the cavern.
“There are only five?” asked Ardette.
“Keep your guard up,” warned Darch, pulling me behind Ardette. “More will surely follow!”
In a flash, Ardette sprang forward and cut through all five of the Druelcans in only three swings. Five puffs of smoke filled the air where they’d once stood. For some reason, he was a little more agile than usual, almost as agile as Nyte and Rend . . . .
Nyte and Rend?
Suddenly it hit me.
“Where are the others?!” I searched the cavern to be sure, but found that none of them had come running in.
Darch shook his head. “They can take care of themselves. Just worry about here and now!”
“Here and now?” That’s a little odd. But it didn’t seem to matter. Just as he said the words, I indeed started to worry only about ‘here and now’.
Darch wrapped his arms around me in a protective stance, waiting in breathless apprehension, while Ardette cautiously made his way toward the Druelcans’ entry point.
The air was still.
“Are there more coming?” I whispered.
“I think they’re gone. Let’s-”
But Darch was interrupted by a laugh.
“Why, look who we’ve stumbled upon!” sang a wicked voice from dangerously close by. “Hello, boys and sacrifice!”
That voice. I stiffened. It can’t be!
I couldn’t believe it. I recognized that wickedness, but I hoped I was mistaken. I mean, I had to be because it didn’t make any sense!
There’s no way! It’s not really her, is it?
Releasing his hold, Darch spun around and threw himself in front of me.
“MYSTRESS!” he yelled, confirming my fears.
It was her. Face hidden by black veil, it was Druelca’s queen. I hated her. For all she’d done, I hated her so much, and at the sight of her, that hatred began to boil. Hot and searing hatred that made me want to vomit.
“You!” I cried, voice shaking with rage. “How dare you enter this place!?”
In response, she again started to laugh in her chime-like way. It only made the hatred grow.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” growled Ardette. Somehow, he was now between the evil destructress and us. Upon his face was a fearsome, loathing scowl, but his eyes held excitement. “I don’t know what you’re doing here, but today I will kill you!”
Weapon outstretched, he bounded at the Mystress. The saber’s thin blade reflected the red torches, making it to glow an ominous scarlet. Some of the shadow from the pit escaped into the air and surrounded Ardette as he ran, blanketing him in a cloud of black. In response, the Mystress stumbled back, appearing confused by the shadow’s behavior.
In no time, Ardette was at her throat, a barbaric leer taking the place of his former scowl.
Is this really happening?
Somehow, Ardette was about to strike down The Mystress. By chance, she was there. And by luck, Ardette had the advantage. We were going to win.
But then everything changed. An abrupt burst of red put a damper on any hopes of victory I’d acquired during the fight.
“Look out!” I yelled, impulsively pushing Darch out of the way.
“Wait, Aura!”
But I ignored him and ran toward the burst, not giving thought that I might, too, get caught by it.
Laughter filled the air like two dozen tinkling chimes.
The red cleared, and what it revealed was terrifying. Ardette was on his back. Standing over him was The Mystress. By some turn of events, she’d managed to obtain the saber from him and was holding it above his heart. Inside, my throat swelled because I understood all too well what was about to happen.
“Stop!” I cried and lurched forward.
But it was too late.
Before I could do anything, The Mystress plunged the saber’s fine point straight down into Ardette’s chest.
“UNGH!” Ardette let out a heave and arched back.
An explosion of smoke filled the air, curling and slinking through the already-shadowed room. It had happened so fast that I could hardly process it.
“A-Ardette?” said Darch, and then with a cry, “Ardetto?!”
Ardette didn’t respond.
“Noooo!” I wailed. “What have you done?!”
But The Mystress was gone.
Where did she . . . HERE AND NOW.
It didn’t matter where she’d gone.
I threw myself over the place where Ardette had lain. Tears slid down my cheeks like salted pieces of soul. I grabbed his ruffled pirate shirt and cloak and buried my face in them, desperately wishing that he was there, held within the garments. But his body was gone. All that remained was a cloud of black. This was his vestige. The cloud surrounded me, and I was breathing him in again, as I had before. Never had I wanted to take him in so freely. It had always been his desire and my tolerance. But this time was different. I took in as much as I could, struggling to hold on to the last bits of him. He was cool and tingly inside of my lungs, inside of my veins.
“No.” My voice shook. It was too hard to speak, so I again only said, “No!”
More tears fell.
“Aura?” I heard his phantom whisper inside of my head.
Ardette? You can’t! You can’t really be-
“Don’t marry him . . . please.” His voice was flooded with wispy sadness. The small something almost grew into a medium-sized something for a just a moment, but the emotion was quick to come and even quicker to leave.
My chest ached.
Ardette? Are you still there?
Nothing.
Ar . . .
The world around started to fluctuate. It started to melt.
First to go was the dragon skeleton, which dissolved into shadow and disappeared into the greater black mass of pit. It was all a swirl for but a moment before that too lost form. Next, the walls of the tomb melted away as easily as wax, leaving behind . . .
&nbs
p; Another set of walls? But these ones were more stable. More material.
What’s going on?
And then I was no longer kneeling over a pile of empty cloth. I was sitting on a crate. My eyes were wet; my cheeks stained with tear. I felt queasy, or something worse than queasy. I was on the verge of vomiting.
“She cried eighteen, so we’re good.”
That was Darch’s voice.
“W-what?” Blinking, I looked around.
Ardette was there, fully intact, his face sullen. Both he and Darch still had their hands on my forehead.
“Thank you, my cherry pit.”
I was speechless. I’d just gone through the grief of losing him, but there he was.
“H . . . how?”
But in that moment, it didn’t really matter ‘how’.
I jumped from the crate and threw my arms around his neck. He felt solid beneath his cloak, not smoky or shadowy or gone. I grabbed a bit of his hair. It was soft and real. I lowered my hand and felt his spine between his shoulder blades. He was cool and firm, and I no longer felt like I was going to vomit.
“That was a dream?” I whispered.
He grabbed the small of my back and pulled me against him. I didn’t resist.
“Sorry that we had to put you through that, Aura,” said Darch. “You see, only the purest of tears will work.”
That’s when I understood.
“Put . . . me . . . through . . . that?” The words came out slowly, mainly because I was trying to hold back the new emotion forming within me. “I see.”
I squeezed Ardette tighter, trying to work through a strange mix of feelings. Then, giving in to the other side of my emotion, I pushed him away, looked him squarely in the eye, and smacked him across the face. The smack stung my hand, but Ardette didn’t flinch.
“Then, that was all some Daem-Magir shadow trick!?”
Ardette nodded.
“How DARE you!? How dare you pull something like that!?”
I readied my hand for another slap. Instead of retorting, Ardette grabbed my still-smarting palm and gently placed it against his cheek where I’d hit. It was then that I noticed how dark-red his eyes were. The spell had taken a lot out of him, too.
“Please, please, please don’t be too upset with him,” said Darch, wincing. “I wanted to use Nyte, but Ardette insisted. He thought this way would be less painful for you.”
“What are you talking about? This was equally as painful! Losing any one of the people I care for is-”
“But it was a surefire way to make you cry, right?” Darch bit his lip.
“Yeah, but . . .” I couldn’t really argue with that, could I? The experience had been awful, but he was right. I had cried, and I hadn’t even had to think of her. However, that pain of loss, no matter how brief, had been just as bad – just as unbearable. Still . . . it had had to be done.
“Fine!” I spat. “I get it! I guess I’m just glad it’s over.”
But I was still sore.
“Ha-ha!” Darch gave one great clap. Then – “Here you go!” – he touched the tip of Ardette’s left horn with his thumb. “You probably need a refill, right?
“Goody,” said Ardette sarcastically. “How I love being rejuvenated by a man.”
Nonetheless, he pulled in Darch’s spirit – while sitting like a wet cat the entire time – until his eyes were back to cherry.
“Alright,” – Darch set the basin, which he’d been holding in his other hand, down and started to head for the side-tunnel – “I’ll go get the others. It’s time to uncover some memories!”
Ardette and I were left at the dragon’s edge. He’d since lowered my hand from his cheek, but for some reason, our hands were still touching. I wasn’t all excited or anything, to have our flesh next to each other, but I was still concreting the idea that he was really there and that the tomb’s previous events had been dream. Thus, I didn’t move away. If anything, I inched my hand closer.
“My, my, realized your true feelings for me, have you?”
“Shut up.”
His throat made a small croaking noise. “What, it’s not like you’d really miss me, were I to disappear. After all, you have your boy to-
“I said, shut it.”
That finally did it.
He sighed, rubbed his brow, and said, “Sorry, all right, my cherry pit?”
Peeved, I stared at the other pit in the room.
Ardette continued, “It’s not like I think you heartless. I mean, I’d hoped you’d care enough to cry a little, but I didn’t think you’d be so . . . affected. It would have been unfavorable to make you think of something sorrowful enough to produce tears, just for the sake of returning that cad’s memory, so I thought this would be the most opportune way to go about-”
“You’re so stupid.”
The statement caught him off guard. He stiffened and threw me a look of surprise and confoundedness. “W-what?”
I grabbed his collar and pulled him down to my level.
“Just because I don’t want to ‘become your lover’ or whatever, doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. Just because I’m in love with Nyte that doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings for you. I won’t ever be to you what you want me to be, but I do love you too, you know, just not in the way you want. If you were gone, it would hurt just as much as if I lost Kantú or Nyte or Illuma. We are friends, Ardette. Don’t degrade our relationship. Please.”
One last tear made its way down my cheek and along my jawbone before dripping off the tip of my chin.
Ardette caught it.
“Damn. Now I just want you more.”
I let out a sigh of exhaustion and stared back into the pit. Would our relationship never be normal?
Not with that small something hanging around. I can tell him I love him as a friend as much as I want, but if the small something starts to act up, then it’s all for naught. Why can’t I just let it go? I don’t want him. I want Nyte. I love Nyte. It’s true that Ardette’s a tease, but that sort of behavior hasn’t ever brought about any real attraction, right? I love him like I love Kantú . . . but Kantú’s never made me want to kiss her, so it’s not exactly the same, is it?
Ardette had been staring at his open palm during my inner confusion. It seemed he’d been doing some thinking as well, for he suddenly stuck out his tongue and licked his wrist where the tear had slid. Then, with solid resolve, and without lifting his eyes, he said,
“Terribly sorry to inform you, but it’s useless. I can’t help wanting you. You affect me so.”
Great. That wasn’t the sort of response I’d been hoping for, though I probably should have expected it. Words like ‘love’ only ever seemed to fuel his desire. I supposed that was natural enough, even if it was the exact opposite of what I’d meant to do. The problem was, I didn’t know how to respond. I’d tried to make myself as clear as possible, even though I wasn’t so clear on the inside myself.
Luckily, a phantom voice offered a solution to my frozen tongue.
“Speak again, lest I misheard,” said the phantom voice through gritted teeth. “Just who is it that you ‘want’?”
Ardette and I both jumped.
Nyte was towering over Ardette, appearing even taller than usual, with a look of bloodlust upon his face.
“Nyte!” I said wistfully. Seeing him made me feel better.
“Why,” Nyte continued, his expression still dark, “must you continually throw your perversions at her?”
Ardette chewed his lip in fake contemplation a moment and then answered simply, “Because I like to.” He said the words with a sickly sly lip curl.
“Come on, guys, not now.”
“Ah!” Nyte reached out his hand, hovered it above my head, and then, with a deep breath, pulled it back into himself. “I apologize. I cannot help getting worked up when he so freely toys with you.”
“Toy with her, do I? And what about you, Mr. Innocent?”
“Ardette,” I warned, not taking my ey
es from Nyte’s withdrawn hand.
Ardette let out an annoyed grunt. “Fine. Guess I’ll let the ‘lovebirds’ have a moment alone. I have to go drink some old dragon blood now, anyway. Yippee.”
He grabbed the basin and stomped away not at all lazily.
I watched him in guilt.
Sorry, Ardette. For our sakes you have to do that. Even though the concept of ‘us’ is hard for you, you’re doing it for us.
Nyte crouched low. “Are you all right, Aura? Was the tear retrieval trying on you?”
My heartbeat quickened.
“I’m okay now. Don’t ask.”
“It was very difficult for me to stay away. They would not tell me what plans they had for you, and it only made me all the more troubled. Knowing that Daem, I was certain it would not something pleasant. Did he . . .” – Nyte winced – “do anything to you?”
You mean besides force me to watch him die?
“Not really. Nothing I can’t recover from.”
“I am glad.” He sounded relieved, but if relief truly was his experienced emotion, it was short-lived. He followed up the statement with silence, and his expression again returned to one of concern.
I didn’t press him.
A moment later, Nyte spoke again.
“And, Aura,” – the greens of his eyes became slightly pained – “do you . . . feel anything for him?”
“What?!”
What I felt like was a cheating lover.
Nyte studied me in earnest. “I have watched you push away countless advances, but I cannot help-”
“It would be a lie to say that I feel nothing for him,” I admitted.
“Oohh.”
As he let out the disappointed utterance, Nyte’s face, along with his pitch, fell too fast. I hurried to explain. If I didn’t, it looked like he’d let himself slump into a lazy pile at any moment – and that pile would most definitely ooze into the pit, one way or another.
“It’s true that I care for Ardette, but there’s something else that’s true too.” I pierced my eyes into his. I’d pierce away all the remnants of sadness. I wouldn’t let him suffer . . . ever. “You, Nyte, are the person most important to me – the one that I’m in love with.” Adrenaline starting to rush, I tugged at the only thing I could – his cloak. I wished more than anything it could be flesh. “You’re the one I desire.”
