by Troy Hooker
Not wanting to make the same mistake of sleeping without planning ahead for a guard again, Gus offered to take watch throughout the night while the others slept. With the sun gone, the breeze blowing through the tent was enough for Sam to slip under the blanket. The sound of the river was enough to put him to sleep for the second time that day. Exhaustion seeped into his eyelids once again, and before long, he had slipped into a deep sleep.
***********************
The next morning, camp was packed up quickly and the boats were loaded with the gear. Just to make sure they wouldn’t have any mishaps, they strapped the packs down with a simple rope net they found in the boathouse.
They were getting a later start than they wanted to, but Gus informed them that his calculations didn’t factor the river current pushing them faster than if they were in the still water of the swamp, and therefore they could make up some time.
When they were convinced the boats were river-worthy and they had enough provisions to make it through the swamp, they dowsed the fire and climbed into the boats, shoving off from the bank. Immediately, Emma shoved a napkin full of black and red berries into Sam’s lap as they were paddling away from the bank, urging him to try a few.
“They are the best raspberries in the world. Trust me,” she told him.
Sam tilted a few from the napkin into his mouth, letting the berries melt on his tongue. They were so sweet it almost tasted as though he had just eaten a jelly doughnut.
“They are great,” he slipped a few more in his mouth. “When did you pick them?”
“This morning, when you were snoring like a moose,” she chuckled, dumping a few more in his lap.
“There are moose here?” he asked genuinely.
His question made her break out into a snicker.
“Of course there are,” she said. “Lior isn’t that much different than Earth, except a little more well-preserved.”
“But dragons?” he pressed. “Those aren’t normal earth creatures, are they?”
“They were, actually … from Creation. But like all creatures after the fall, the Darkness changed them,” she said.
“Made them evil, you mean.”
She stopped paddling and sighed.
“Yes, sort of. But dragons are different. I believe the Creator gave them the ability to see the difference between Light and Darkness.”
Sam turned on his bench to face her, lifting an eyebrow.
“Seriously? Like they can choose right and wrong?”
Emma picked up her paddle once again, pretending not to notice the doubt in his voice.
“Yep. I am sure of it. Some Liorians think they are of the Darkness, but I think we just don’t understand them. I’m surprised the dragon was even at the opening parade this time. There was a petition to ban it last year.”
“Do they live here? In the swamp?” he asked.
“No. They stay in the mountains to the north near the Giants,” she replied. “Sometimes you can see them from Lior near the mountains, but that’s rare. They only keep Orono in the City because they think he is one of the rarest breeds of dragon.”
“Orono? That’s his name?” Sam remembered the beautiful blue dragon walking down Main Street. He was jaw-dropping, even without all the glimmer and lights attached to his wings. Orono’s eyes seemed to penetrate through the darkened street like golden plates reflecting the brightest of light, and even though it was in chains, the dragon seemed to understand its place among people—not one born out of violence, but of peace.
Sooner than they expected, only an hour into their journey, they rounded a small bend and came up on the swamp. The river seemed to melt right into its stagnant, murky water, disappearing below its dark surface.
The river pines changed suddenly into wide, arching mangroves that hung their dark, invasive branches over the water. They paddled into the vast abyss in awe, feeling suddenly very small and insignificant. Emma, who had really begun to do much better with her constant fear, was once again slunk down in her seat with her head on the pile of gear. Sam didn’t mind, except for the fact that now that the river wasn’t moving, he was having to do most of the paddling.
“I hate swamps. Their so … so smelly and swampy,” she made sure to verbalize.
Gus and Lillia slid through the black water to Sam and Emma’s boat and caught up alongside them. Gus was already unfolding the worn map that showed the reaches of the massive swamp.
“While it isn’t exact, I think whoever created this map may have been pretty thorough,” Gus said. “I think we will be heading …” he pointed somewhere in the distance ahead of them, “… over there.”
Not knowing much about maps or cartography, the other three were perfectly content to let Gus take the blame for getting them lost, and therefore assume responsibility for all of their deaths should it happen. Normally there would be more protest and questions for showing resolute leadership in a time like this, but no one really had the desire to challenge him, nor did they have a better solution to offer.
They paddled into the dark, potent body of water, keeping to one side of the shoreline as the swamp began to widen. Deep patches of fog began to overtake their little boats the further they paddled, so to keep from losing each other, they tied a rope to the stern of each craft.
Scanning the banks for possible predators, they paddled earnestly for another hour before realizing how hungry they were. Instead of stopping for lunch to save time and avoid run-ins with any large predators, Emma put together a small lunch of dried meat and cake in the boat and handed it to each of the others before serving herself. Although it was neither hot nor enjoyed next to a roaring fire, it was filling and it kept them paddling.
Throughout the afternoon, they paddled for what seemed like eternity around endless stumps poking their massive heads out of the soupy water. They maneuvered numerous deceiving channels that led to the depths of one of the endless back channels. As the sun waned, they began to grow concerned about getting stuck in the swamp before the sun went down entirely.
Another even more strange concern was suggested by Emma, who noticed that there weren’t any animals, whether dangerous or not, to be seen anywhere. The sounds of a normal swamp had dissipated the further they paddled, unnoticed by them, leaving them with only their voices and the sound of paddles sloshing through the black water. As they listened and heard nothing, it was unsettling to say the least.
“I bet the Giants have wiped everything out,” Lillia suggested.
Emma dipped her finger in the black liquid, half expecting it to come out looking the color of the water itself.
“It doesn’t seem possible. The swamp is full of creatures. And there aren’t that many Giants. They could never eat everything. And what about the frogs and toads and crickets? They don’t eat those.”
“It is odd,” was all that Gus could say as he gazed at the milky air that enveloped the trees beyond the banks.
His unwillingness to explain his thoughts troubled the other three, but they said nothing. They counted on him for his knowledge and awareness, but now he gave them nothing.
“Well, there has to be something else wrong,” Emma said, glaring at Lillia, who rolled her eyes.
Sam looked around at the thick fog that moved about the surface of the swamp like the settling cloud in the field by his grandfather’s cabin on cold mornings. It seemed to move about and swirl, even though there was no breeze.
Suddenly, Sam caught a glimpse of something ahead of them nearly a hundred meters and to the left of the widening swamp. His heart skipped a beat.
“Didn’t you say the cloud of Darkness surrounded the Old City from the time of the invasion?” he said quietly, eyeing what lie ahead of them.
“Yes,” Gus said, looking around and scowling suddenly. “I did.”
“Was it supposed to be this far out?” He pointed at the
dark cloud that was quickly becoming visible through the clearing fog.
There, as though the soupy black water of the swamp had suddenly turned to a gas and settled along the bank, perched a dense cloud of Darkness. While it wasn’t the massive cresting wave like the one outside the Old City, it looked equally as threatening.
With the afternoon light deteriorating, they immediately dug in with their paddles and swung to the far right of the swamp, hugging the bank to avoid the cloud.
“This is a new mass,” Sam said breathily, looking for any sign of the hollow pain-stricken apparitions in the cloud like the one they previously encountered.
“Yes,” Gus said in awe of the cloud, which seemed to be slowly expanding even as they watched. “Maybe less than a month old, I would say. There aren’t any dark souls that have been absorbed into it yet.”
“So between the growing cloud we walked through, and now this, there is no doubt the Darkness is expanding again,” Lillia reminded them.
Gus nodded.
“I’m afraid I have no other explanation than to agree with Lillia. We will have to alert Mr. Sterling of this.”
For some reason, Sam could not take his eyes off the Darkness. He knew the intensity of the attraction having experienced the other, much older cloud, but the draw of this one was incredible. Everything inside of him told him to paddle straight into the inky mass. He knew the others felt it too, because they too, could not turn away.
He was glad that Emma snapped him out of his daze.
“It’s unbelievably dense,” she said.
“And the entire city is clueless,” Lillia shook her head. “The Seers, PO, Sons—most of them have no idea this is going on.”
It was true. Since arriving in Lior, nearly everyone who talked about the Darkness had said it was the weakest it had ever been, with virtually no new expansion since the fall of the Old City. Not that it was quite to the level of overwhelming yet, but there was no doubt it was gaining in strength. Mr. Sterling had been correct—something was deceiving Lior to hide the Darkness.
Sam peered into the cloud as they rounded the edge of the swamp where the Darkness had not yet reached.
“What causes the Darkness to come into an area?”
Gus maneuvered his boat around where he could see Sam and Emma’s face.
“Horrific acts, crimes against nature or anything within the Light,” he said. “It takes something powerful to invite the Darkness into an area … which is why the cloud is so large around the Old City. It was a very dark day.”
“What exactly happened there?” Sam pressed. He knew many Descendants were killed, but something told him it was more than just an invasion. He tried not to imagine, but the thoughts flooded him anyway, almost as if he was there to experience it himself.
“About a third of the Descendants died in the initial attack. The rest of the City fought back and was eventually able to put down the hoards of Metim that stormed the gates, but not before the Chancellor of Old Lior was captured and tortured in front of the City’s inhabitants,” he whispered, his voice still carrying in the mist. “All the Sons of Light were killed except for one—Reuven Calpher.”
“Unbelievable.”
“Dark Watchers called in the Darkness, and no one of the Light has been able to expel it since,” Lillia added.
“Maybe with the Watcher Stone it would be different,” Emma said.
Gus nodded.
“I’ve been reading in Julian’s notes where he and Boggle discussed it. He seemed to think that somehow the Stone lifted all Dark curses, regardless of how powerful they were.”
“Such a tiny little thing. I wonder how it could be possible,” Emma mumbled, refusing to gaze too long at the cloud beside them.
Sam had wondered that too. Would a powerful Seer or the Council figure out how to activate it? The library in Lior City had many books on the Stone, but they were inconsistent, and those that were only agreed that it contained colors representative of the regions of Lior.
He wondered again if the Stone was the object that the person from his dream put into the Dark arch. Could it be the key that opened the arch? The swirling shapes—were those creatures of the Darkness, making their way through the gate after thousands of years of being trapped? Mr. Sterling had said he believed the Dark Lords wanted to use the Stone to unite the Dark Forces somehow. Was this the way they planned to do it?
“What do you think happened here?” Lillia dared to ask.
The four looked at each other, and then back at the cloud, but no one answered. They could only watch the Darkness slowly morph in its invisible boundary, as though trapped in a bondage of its own doing.
The group watched it so closely, in fact, that they didn’t even noticed the large bubbles of swamp water gurgling up beside their boats.
The bubbles surfaced slowly at first, but then more rapidly, as if something was about to surface …
Before any of them could react, a massive tail lifted out of the water and smacked the front of Sam and Emma’s boat with such force that it threw both of them out of their seats and into the murky water.
Sam heard Emma scream as he hit the water, which drowned out the sound instantaneously as he plunged beneath the surface. He was instantly pulled under by something powerful, dragging him under with his shoe clutched firmly in its mouth. He screamed, but only air bubbles left his mouth, with more dark water being sucked into his mouth as he struggled for oxygen.
Down they went, the creature with Sam in its mouth, until they reached the bottom where both bodies hit the hard clay with a thud. Suddenly next to him was a large tree branch, and he grasped it and kicked with all of his strength. Although it felt like he was moving in slow motion, he managed to hit something solid on the creature that made it let go of his foot. Blood instantly colored the water everywhere from his shoe, but he felt no pain. Instead, he flung himself under the large branch he held, waiting for the creature to turn and try for him once more.
When it didn’t, he kicked off from the floor of the swamp’s depths and rocketed toward the surface. As he swam, he was met by a surprised Lillia. She grabbed hold of him and helped him swim upward through the thick liquid. It felt as though he had been under water for several minutes, and the surface only seemed to get further away the higher they went. His eyes grew heavy and his body limp somewhere along the way, and he felt himself drifting further into the black water.
***********************
“Get him up to the shore!” Lillia cried as she breached the surface with Sam in her arms.
Instantly, Emma and Gus sprang into action. Gus, who had pulled Emma into his boat, paddled to Lillia, and with her hanging on to the side, thrust his paddle into the water and towed them singlehandedly to the bank. Emma was stunned but unharmed, and eventually she snapped to and helped Lillia drag Sam’s lifeless body up the muddy embankment. Lillia was at his side immediately, puffing large breaths into his lungs.
Sam opened his eyes for a moment, and seeing Lillia’s face close to his own, reached out and struck out at her. Then he sat up, delirious, and struggled to regain his surroundings.
“Stop it! Sam! You are safe!” Emma screamed at him while Gus threw his arms around Sam to restrain him from causing any more harm to Lillia.
Slowly, the scene came back to Sam. He was no longer under the water fighting an unknown predator, but instead was watching a lone boat come into focus as it drifted back into the swamp without any passengers, and turning his head upright, blurry-eyed figures emerged around him frantically calling his name.
“What-happened?” he gurgled, spitting out some of the murky black water next to him that was sloshing around in his mouth.
Lillia had recovered from the blow and sat up, rubbing her temple.
“You nearly drowned, ignoramus,” she spat. “You don’t remember the giant disfigured lizard-whatever
dragging you down to who-knows-where?”
He nodded to Lillia, remembering the powerful jaws of the beast. Scanning the surface, he searched for a sign of the creature.
Sure enough, it was still in the water near the dark cloud, circling the abandoned boat in the middle of the swamp. Every so often it would poke its ugly disfigured head out of the water to reveal a monster, once resembling a large crocodile, with a drooping snout and twisted eyes that looked both up and down at the same time.
On its snout was a rather large gash that told Sam his kick under water hit home. Yet it was only a scratch, and the Croc ignored it while it watched the youths intently from the murky depths.
“I’m assuming the same thing happened to that as with the wolves?” Sam asked, still rubbing the muck from his eyes and dumping black water from his shoes.
“The Darkness—it alters not only the mind but the body as well. It makes them more aggressive and even causes them to be, well, bloodthirsty,” Gus said. “Some even turn savage enough to eat their own young, and even themselves.”
“Okay … I think that’s enough,” Emma cut him off, rolling her eyes.
“Why didn’t the Darkness change us when we went through it the first time?” Sam asked. “We don’t look all crazy like that.”
Gus looked cautiously toward the water once again, a large splash from the angry crocodile’s tail distracting him briefly.
“That mass by the plateau slope on the other side is almost fifty years old, and not nearly as dangerous as it was when it first began. And, people of Light—Descendants that is—are protected for the most part from short concentrations of Darkness.”
Sam didn’t fully understand, but he let it go. There were too many questions already unanswered to try and add one more. Instead, they all got to work helping him, Emma, and Lillia squeeze the water out of their clothes before moving on. The afternoon was now nearly gone, and they were growing more and more concerned that they would not make it through the swamp by nightfall. One look at the dense jungle around them and the large predator tracks told them that where they sat would make them an easy meal for some large creature.
