by Lyn Lowe
More and more, the weight on his arm slowed his mad dash. The Lemme was old. She was sick. She never left her hut. She couldn’t keep up with a small sixteen–year–old boy. Not even a dizzy one. Her breathing was thick and labored. He slowed, but it wasn’t enough. She stopped moving, dropping her hands onto her knees and gasping for air.
Sojun was at his side in an instant. He met his friend’s eyes. Jun wasn’t as fast as him, but he was strong. Kaie wanted desperately to be the one to save the Lemme, but there was no time for pride. “You have to carry her!”
Jun looked surprised. “I won’t be able to fight. If they come for us…”
Kaie shook his head. “If they do, we’re dead. You can’t fight steel with flesh. One of us has to carry her and we both know I’m not strong enough!”
Sojun gave him a strange look, then scooped up the Lemme in one smooth movement.
They were moving, though slower than before. He longed to stretch his legs, to taste the freedom once more, but Kaie would not leave his heart’s brother behind. Not again.
They reached the path. It was the same one he walked with his friends earlier that day, but Kaie barley recognized it. His whole world had cracked right down the center, and one side had slid out of place. Nothing was familiar anymore.
As they passed over the spot where they were laying hours ago, he heard voices.
“… thought he said there wasn’t anything out this far.”
“Maybe not. But it doesn’t hurt to look, does it?”
“It will hurt, if the Cat thinks we’re wasting time.”
He and Sojun exchanged a glance. With a burst of pure adrenaline, both boys surged over the hill.
His foot slipped just as the stone doors came into view. Kaie’s mouth flew open in a silent shout as he tumbled. His body curled up and he rolled. He landed hard, dirt and grass hitting his tongue. Once again, the world was a blur. Kaie hit hard. He could do nothing but gasp for a breath that wouldn’t come and stare at glittering lights dancing behind his eyes. A hand wrapped itself around his wrist, and then he was sliding. He nearly cried out as the movement scraped his back and bounced his battered head against the earth.
He gathered up his senses just in time to watch Sojun – the Lemme now slung over his shoulder – drag him into the vault. Jun set her down on the ground beside Kaie and then, clearly straining from the effort, slammed the doors closed. A second later he was on the ground as well.
They were safe.
For a time.
Five
His whole body was shaking. He wasn’t cold but every bit of him was shaking like it was. Didn’t matter. Time for that later. Time to be sick later. Take care of the Lemme first.
Kaie crawled the short distance between them. The Lemme’s eyes were closed, her face was drenched in sweat and her breathing was raspy. Fearing that she wouldn’t respond at all, he gently shook her shoulders. “Are you alright?”
Her eyes fluttered open slowly and she took in her surroundings with a sluggishness that worried him. He pressed a hand to her cheek and wasn’t surprised to find she was running a fever. Kaie looked around for a source of water to give her but there was nothing.
They were in the small entrance space before the vault proper began. It was his first time on this side of the doors. The light on the wall had been made by Toman, Jun’s father. He was the light–giver for the village. It was his job to craft the lanterns, set up the torches in the center of the village for ceremonies, and to keep the path out of the vault lit for confused spirits.
“We need to find water for the Lemme,” he told Sojun, who was watching him with the intensity of someone fighting to stay awake. “And some way to bar the door. Just in case those soldiers come looking down here.”
Jun frowned. “How?”
Kaie’s eyes drifted – first left, then right. “Did your father ever tell you what’s beyond this room?”
His friend’s eyes screwed closed. “No. Gods, please don’t ask that! We can’t go further! The lost souls will rip us to shreds!”
He couldn’t help but to gape. Sojun was strong. He was already one of the strongest in the family at only his fifteenth year. Nothing gave him pause. Not going against a handful of boys, not the bear that wandered into the village last spring, not the storm that had nearly destroyed the whole village two years before. Nothing. But now he was pleading like a babe. Kaie didn’t know how to deal with this.
“I’m sorry.” He bit back frustration. “I’ll go myself. You look after the Lemme.”
Kaie drew in several deep breaths, trying to will strength back into his body with the air. Then he shoved himself to his feet. He caught himself on the stone wall as the world tilted horribly. Suddenly he was kneeling on the floor again, gagging on the burning bile spilling from his lips, not entirely sure how he got there.
Sojun was beside him. “Kosa take me. I have to go, don’t I? You can’t do this by yourself.”
“No, Jun.” Kaie tried to smile. It didn’t quite work. “I can do this. I just need a minute.”
He wasn’t at all sure he could. Sucking in a long, apprehensive breath, he tottered forward.
“You’ll come back for me?” Sojun called out before he turned the corner.
This time, Kaie added, hating himself all over again. “Fast as I can.”
***
He wanted to go back. Right away, he needed to go back. The next light was just a glimmer in the distance; his chances of reaching it just as high as the ones of reaching the moon. He was alone in the dark. There was something wrong with his head, something very wrong. And there were spirits. He could feel them watching him. The chill of their gaze was already draining the heat from his skin. Soon they would see what the Lemme did; they would know he was a seer. They would come for him then. And Sojun wouldn’t be there to drag him to safety.
“Please, Mother Lemme,” he muttered as he dragged his feet forward. “I know you won’t help me. But she is your voice. You have to care about that. Please.”
Kaie closed his eyes, trailing his hand along the wall for a guide. It was stupid and he knew it. There wasn’t much light but there was some. He should be using it to help find what they needed and to make sure there were no unexpected turns. Just one could see him lost in the tunnels forever. But he couldn’t stand to see the darkness spanning out before him.
He shuffled on slowly, hoping each move would run him up against some great pot filled with just enough water to take care of them. He decided to stop counting his steps at eighty–two. At one hundred twenty–four, he did. The next step, his toe caught on a stone and Kaie tumbled forward. His eyes flew open, but there was nothing to see. Just like he’d feared, the walls had turned him away from the light. He threw his hands out in front of him, certain he was about to hear the snap of his own bones, and see all ten of his fingers bent backward. Gods, this was going to suck.
When he hit, it wasn’t stone.
The water filled his mouth before the cry of pain could get out. It surged up his nose and down his throat. His eyes burned and he lost all sense of direction. He flailed, his response instinctual and panicked.
No.
Lungs aching, Kaie forced himself to think through the terror. He didn’t know which way was up. But he didn’t swallow too much water, and it didn’t feel like he was caught in a current. If he was wrong, he would drown. If he kept on like he was, that would happen anyway. So he stretched out his body, thought light thoughts, and waited.
He gave up, certain he made the wrong choice and was dying alone in the dark, when a cold brush of air kissed the back of his neck. The temperature difference was slight, and it was everything. Kaie reacted instantly, flipping his body over and sucking in as much air as he could. A second later, he was hacking up all the water he swallowed, but it didn’t matter. It was still the sweetest thing of his life.
Breathing resolved, he tackled the next problem: finding his way back. Without the light it was impossible. He didn’t kn
ow where he started from, and wouldn’t be able to find where he’d fallen even if he did. But he couldn’t tread water forever. He needed to get to land again. Closing his eyes, he picked a direction and swam.
It didn’t take long. He decided that was a good sign. Either the pool was small or, hopefully, he didn’t get far from where he fell in and chose the right direction. Pulling himself out of the water made the world lurch dangerously. He could feel the blackness of the vault pulling him down, but he fought his way back and up to solid ground. He struggled to his feet, trying to force himself to believe that he was facing the right direction. He would know in one hundred and twenty–five steps. The cold air leached what life was left in him, but Kaie pressed his hand against the wall. Closing his eyes again, he did what he could to fight through the tremors tearing through his body and reproduce his slow, shuffling gait of before. Between each count, he prayed.
Six
He woke up aching, back in the light of Toman’s lamp. Kaie didn’t remember making it back, didn’t even remember losing consciousness, but the sight of that small globe of safety brought tears to his eyes. When Sojun’s face appeared over him he laughed.
“Thank the gods!” Sojun jerked him up off the ground and hugged him. “I can’t take losing you another time, Rosy. Lemme’s name, I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”
Kaie was too tired to weigh the merits of that. “That works for me. You can be the one who goes swimming next time.”
Jun let him go and tried a smile. “I wasn’t sure if that was water or you figured sweat works just as well.”
“That might be your worst joke ever,” Kaie said, realizing he was wearing Sojun’s shirt, large enough to fit three of him, and that his own was gone. With some curiosity, he tracked it down. Part of it was wrapped around his hurt arm, the rest seemed to be around his head. The one on his arm was stained dark red. He didn’t remember it bleeding before. “And that’s really saying something. The Lemme?”
He was afraid of the answer. The way Sojun’s eyes darted away told him he was right to be so. “She’s not okay. I can’t…What are we going to do?”
Of course she wasn’t okay. He scooted up against the wall. The stone was so cold. Everything was so damn cold. “Jun, I know you’re scared. But…”
Sojun sighed again and dropped his head against his knees. Kaie listened to his friend suck in several long breaths. “Destroyer take me.”
“There weren’t any spirits. There was just water, lots of freezing water. If there was another way…”
The other boy looked up, his eyes so wide they were more white than brown. “I know. There’s not. You couldn’t carry her if you weren’t half dead. I’ll do it. Gods.”
“Okay. I need another minute.”
Jun scoffed and rolled his eyes, making a pretty decent attempt at good humor, for all that he was obviously frightened. “Take five of them, Rosy. For me.”
Before they left, he convinced Sojun to pull the lamp out of the wall. Neither one of them wanted to spend any more time in the darkness. Kaie took the light, Jun took the Lemme. Hand pressed firmly against the wall, he led the way back to the pool with eyes open.
The trip was easier. The distance that seemed so impossible transformed into a short walk off the main path. The circle of light he carried made all the difference. He was still exhausted, still hurting, but his fear seemed to be banished to the darkness outside the light.
The darkness around the water refused to be broken, so Kaie still couldn’t tell how far the pool stretched, but it was big. Even the small area the lamp illuminated was more than enough to get lost and drown in. At least one of the gods were with him, that he found his way out and back to where he needed to be.
Sojun settled down with the Lemme. Kaie crawled over next to them and began scooping water up to her. It took a great deal of coaxing, but they got her to drink. She waved them away before he thought she got enough, but no amount of wheedling would get her to swallow after that.
A few minutes later, Kaie understood how she felt. Once the Lemme was asleep, Sojun turned all attention to him. His head was poked at, his eyes checked, water was shoved down his throat until Kaie feared he was drowning, and he came dangerously close to being stripped and bathed. He let it go as long as he could stand, in the hope that his friend would relax when the spirits continued to leave them be. But patience had never been one of his strengths. “Jun, you’re not getting my pants off.”
He didn’t get a laugh, didn’t get much of anything. Sojun looked up slowly, as if not seeing him. “Why did you leave me, Kaie? I know I’m not as fast as you, but I could’ve helped.”
Kaie cringed. Nothing he said would make up for the fact that Jun went to sleep next to his friend in a peaceful village, and woke up to a world on fire all alone. “I didn’t. Not like that. I went before anything was happening, to talk to the Lemme.”
Sojun focused on him, but just for a moment. Then the other boy’s eyes dropped. “You changed your mind, didn’t you? You were going to take exile.”
Kaie dropped down to the ground, not caring that it was cold and hard. “I don’t think it matters anymore.”
“I knew it,” Jun said wiping at the ash and blood with wet hands. “You can’t ever go along with someone else’s plan. Not even if it’s in your best interest.”
“I’ll stick to your next plan. Promise.” There was no trace of any emotion in the other boy. He wanted to apologize, but there was nothing he could say to put any of it right. “How bad was it?”
Sojun grimaced. “Your roof fell on me. When I got out, the village was burning and everyone was screaming. I thought I was stuck in a nightmare. I saw Bridgett’s clothes catch fire. A man cut down Ned while he was trying to put them out. Then the man killed Bridgett, too. I couldn’t move. I just watched.”
Kaie closed his eyes against the image. Bridgett made the best bows. And the clothes Ned made always seemed twice as colorful as anyone else’s. Their children were still babies, the oldest only just walking. “Navin. I watched one drag Navin right past me.”
“But you saved the Lemme.”
“We saved the Lemme,” he amended. It was weak; a flimsy shield thrown up against the shame and guilt of watching their family torn to bits by a ruthless beast. But it was all there was, and Kaie refused to keep all for himself.
“Dahlia.”
They jumped at the cracked voice cutting into their conversation. Both boys turned to the large, slumped figure a few feet away.
“My name,” she croaked. “It has been nearly twenty years since someone called me that. If I am to die here, I would have it be as myself.”
Kaie sat up, shaking his head. “You’re not dying, Lemme. Dahlia. We’re safe here. You said so.”
“For a time,” Jun added lowly. Kaie avoided looking at his friend. The other boy was terrified. It wasn’t fair to be mad at him for that. Not after everything. But he was.
“You’re the heart of the tribe,” he insisted. “For us to live, you must live.”
She smiled faintly, but her eyes would not meet his. “Of course.”
Kaie began to say something more, something comforting and meaningless, when a sound echoed through the cavern and snapped his mouth shut. He and Jun both craned their necks, trying uselessly to search beyond their circle of light for what sounded like shoes scuffing against the stone of the floor.
Kaie pulled himself to the Lemme’s side, determined to throw his body between her and any danger. Jun crouched, hands clenched into fists. His friend’s face was twisted with the same fear amplified a thousand times. They both knew what came next. This was when the lost souls rose up to smite them for their trespass.
It wasn’t a spirit that turned the corner, holding a flickering lamp over its head. It was Toman. Kaie sagged with relief but Jun’s tension didn’t diminish in any visible way.
“Sojun? Is that you?”
“Da? What are you doing here?”
Kaie d
idn’t know Toman well. He spent much of his time holed up in his home making the lamps, or out here replacing them. Jun didn’t speak of him often and in all the years of their friendship, they only spent time at Sojun’s house a handful of times. Never when Toman was there.
“Devin had a bad night,” Toman replied quietly, as though trying not to be overheard. It wasn’t necessary. Kaie did know Sojun’s younger sister, and was quite aware that she wasn’t born well. Her mind wasn’t altogether in the world. On occasion she would fly into fits of screaming and flailing with no clear cause. Sometimes the woods helped calm her.
“So you brought her to see our family’s dead?”
Toman’s lips pursed. “I brought her to the hill. Then there was screaming and fire. I brought her here to keep her safe.”
Sojun’s fists dropped. “Where is she?”
Toman gestured to the tunnel behind him. “I came for water. I left her in a cavern further back.”
“Alone in the dark?” Jun demanded. “Where she can stir up the lost spirits and no one is there to protect her?”
Sojun’s father looked just as surprised at the tone as Kaie was. “I’m not new to this. She’s in a well–lit and safe place, calm, eating her crackers.”
Ignoring the voice telling him to stay out of another family’s problems, he interrupted whatever Jun was about to say. “You have food?”
Toman looked at him as though only just noticing he was there. The man’s face tightened in a way vaguely similar to the expression Sojun wore. “Some. I’ll give you what I can. Sojun, come with me. You can see your sister is fine and get food for your friend.”
Jun’s hands clenched into fists. “No. Bring it here. Bring Devin here. She likes Kaie. She’ll be happier with us.”
After a moment of silent staring, Toman shrugged and went back into the tunnel. Kaie waited until the sound of footsteps was gone, waited two breaths more, then turned on his friend. “What’s going on?”
His friend shrugged, staring off after Toman. “I told you, I’m not letting you out of my sight. With your luck, the instant I turn that corner there will be a rock–slide and we’ll never see each other again.”
