by Day Leitao
Karina looked at her friend then whispered, as if speaking softly diminished the truth she was about to admit, “I don’t think I can do it.”
Cayla sighed, impatient. “There’s no other way. Do you want to go back?”
Nia put her face in the opening. “What’s going on?”
Cayla replied. “She says she can’t climb it.”
Nia didn’t seem upset. “I’m sure she can. Cayla, climb first, that way she sees you and can do the same.”
The girl nodded and climbed, holding the light between two fingers. She was fast and precise, almost like a circus artist, and Karina realized that she had seen circus and gymnastics stunts many times, and that they’d never increased her chances of being capable of performing them. But soon Cayla disappeared through the hole, keeping only the light pointing down. It barely reached Karina.
“Take your time. We’re waiting,” Nia said, in a tone that implied the opposite.
Karina tried as best as she could. She managed to grab the rope, but she was never capable of pulling herself up only with her arms. A few more tries yielded only exhaustion and pain. Karina sat on the ground, feeling defeated. She then tried to think, seeing if she could find a logical solution to make up for her lack of physical skills. She wondered if she could teleport, but more and more she felt it was impossible, and that perhaps she had not been responsible for their escape from the finger-cutting people on the hill. A loud thud snapped her out of her thoughts.
Cayla had just jumped down, and was beside her, looking annoyed. “Is that your plan? To spend the day sitting? How’s that going to bring you up?”
“I was trying to think.”
“You won’t go up by thinking. Let alone trying.”
Karina only stared, wondering if the girl had really gone through the trouble of jumping down just to scold her. Cayla was right beneath the rope, and pointed up, then pointed to her shoulders. “Here.”
Karina crossed her arms because she was well aware she had to go up and she had to use her arms. “I tried, okay, I’m trying.”
Cayla laughed. “No, no. I want to help you. Climb on my shoulders.” She then crouched.
Karina climbed on the girl’s back, then on her shoulders. She held the rope and stood up on Cayla’s shoulders carefully not fall. This time, she could touch the rope with both hands and feet, making her way up easier. With a lot of effort, she got close to the opening, and Nia pulled her up. She found herself on a metal grid, surrounded by a tube made of a sparkly white stone. There was a transparent spiral staircase, made of glass, or something similar. Dim light came from the steps above. Those were some huge stairs. A tunnel upward.
Cayla soon came up. “Well, at least we’ll finally move. I was afraid we wouldn’t reach the top by day.”
Nia took a deep breath. “Let’s just hope nobody’s waiting for us outside.”
Cayla shook her head. “No. I think this time everything will go well. I know it.”
“Good for you,” Nia said.
Karina feared they would start arguing, but they didn’t. There was no point in trying to predict the rest of their journey when it stood above them. Karina then wondered how high that mountain was. From what she had seen from the castle it was an old mountain range. The highest peak couldn’t be taller than some two kilometers, which meant that they could get to the top in no more than a couple hours.
After a few minutes climbing, Karina realized that she had greatly underestimated the effort and time to get to the top. After just a few turns, everyone’s pace was reduced, and soon they all sat to rest. Nobody talked, because they were panting, even Nia and Cayla. They just passed the water around. Karina felt a little dizzy from all the turning and her legs hurt. They spent their next hours either climbing slowly or sitting and resting. At least the more they climbed the more light reached them, and it felt good to be moving away from darkness. The downside was that the more they climbed the taller the steps felt. They were the same size, but the strength in their legs wasn’t. Karina would never again complain about going up four, ten or even twenty floors. Not after she climbed the equivalent of some six hundred. Assuming her estimate was right, of course.
As interminable as the staircase had first looked, after many hours of slow climbing and resting they reached a place where they could see a small opening and patches of blue sky above them. The stairs finished, and they reached a smaller tube, some six meters high. A metal ladder led to the top. Cayla climbed first, and Karina last. She hated being last again, but at least she knew her arms and feet could take her out of that place. Actually, it wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Trembling tired legs are not very efficient climbers. When Karina finally put her head outside, among branches, she saw that the tube from where they had just come out looked like a tree from the outside. That was a neat way to hide a huge staircase from anyone who went to that mountain.
Exhausted, Karina reached the ground, which was covered with grass. There were other trees around them. Karina realized how much she had missed the sky. The few clouds above them looked orange and pink. How magnificent it was to be out in the open.
“We need to find a place to spend the night,” Nia said.
Cayla looked at her sister. “What did Odell say? I mean, what are we supposed to do now?”
Ayanna seemed to think for a moment. “Other than going to Lylah’s castle, I don’t think he had any more advice.” She looked down, thinking. “No, he didn’t. But I think it should be easy from here, right? I mean, because he didn’t say much about it.”
Nia narrowed her eyes as if thinking. “As far as I know this is an impossible place to reach—except by air. So we just have to make sure we’re not spotted from above. Other than that, perhaps we’re safe—hopefully.”
They walked to a place where the trees were closer together, so that no lifts could spot them from above. They spread their blankets and sat. Karina felt exhausted, but she was curious to see the path ahead. She got up. “I just want to take a look there.”
“I’m coming with you,” Cayla said, and also got up.
Nia narrowed her eyebrows, then said, “Careful. It’s getting dark. And don’t go far.”
The girls nodded, then walked about one hundred meters, until the forest, and the ground, stopped suddenly. There were mountains further away, in a crooked horizon. Beneath them, an ocean of thin clouds, covering a valley and a dark river. So that explained “black” river. Somehow Karina had imagined a more eerie meaning to the name. Amidst the clouds, in the middle of the river, she could see something white and shiny, similar to the stone surrounding the long spiral staircase. Karina took a better look, and realized it was a white castle on a small island, contrasting to the waters around it. It looked like a toy in the distance, or better, an icing cake decoration, and yet, that little thing was their final destination.
Karina then realized she had been so caught up in the tunnel and stairs she had completely forgotten the purpose of her journey. Her task was so much more than getting out of a tunnel. The darkness and enclosing had made her forget the great beautiful sky outside, and that this world was just part of some great bigger something.
14
Looking Ahead
“I’m glad we’re out. This is beautiful, isn’t it?” Karina said.
Cayla, who stood beside her, smiled. “It’s amazing. And we’re near her castle, so we are finally back on track.”
“Back on track with everyone after us.”
Cayla didn’t seem worried. “We’ll make it right.”
Karina then thought about her change of mind about Lylah, her change of mind about the King, and how the mission seemed completely different now. She wondered if Cayla was at least open to feeling something different from the way she felt before. “And what if the reason we’re here is different from what you expected?”
Cayla had a puzzled look. “Like?”
Karina shrugged. “I don’t know. And you think we’ll go in, throw the shoes, the
n puff, Lylah disappears?”
She had made an effort to sound serious, but she wasn’t sure if it had been successful.
Cayla laughed. “You make it sound silly. I don’t know, all I know is that Odell wouldn’t tell us to do something dangerous or that didn’t make sense.”
Karina looked down. “It has been dangerous.”
“I know, but if we didn’t have any problem on our first journey, we could be down there, on the other side of the river, on this same day, waiting for nightfall, without anyone following us.”
Getting to the mouth of the Black River should have taken five or six days, so Karina corrected her friend. “Actually, we would still be near the meeting of the rivers.”
“See? I was right. We did speed up our journey.”
Karina laughed. In reality, she thought that a long and boring camping and hiking expedition around the mountains would have been better than all the trouble and danger they’d been through the last few days. But, would it really? She would still believe that the tyrant and crazy King was representing the good guys. She would still believe she would save the world by destroying the shoes. Of course, Karina wasn’t thankful that she had been imprisoned and threatened. But still… like Cayla said, they had even sped up their journey.
Cayla noticed that she was thinking, but probably imagined something else, and said, “I know. Maybe we should have done as Odell told us, we should’ve walked all the way, I know. But I can’t change that now.”
Karina nodded, accepting what she thought was the closest to an apology her friend could muster. Another thought, unrelated to their conversation, hit Karina. “It doesn’t have walls around it.”
“What?”
“The castle. You said it had walls.”
Cayla seemed to remember. “It’s true. But it doesn’t look like a fortress either.”
“It doesn’t.”
Karina was no expert in fortifications or castles, but that delicate, white, shiny thing certainly didn’t look like a fortress. She then tried to imagine what it would look like from the inside but the thought gave her a knot in the stomach. Even though the castle looked like a little toy, it was there, it was reachable, it existed. So different from the theory of Odell’s explanation which now seemed to have happened an eternity before.
“Let’s see the way down,” Cayla said.
The girl walked closer to the edge, and Karina followed. She knew the descent was steep, but when she looked, her heart almost stopped. “Steep slope” was a huge understatement. What she saw was a humongous cliff, tall and wide, extending almost as far as they could see. Karina finally understood why, on their first journey, they would have to walk around it. There was no way they would go down that thing. Cayla also looked worried, so no, this wasn’t supposed to be easy, not even for the people there. Cayla turned around. “We have to tell them.”
The girls raced back, then told the others what they’d seen. Ayanna was surprised, but Nia not so much. “I told you this was an impossible place to reach by land. Didn’t you ever see a picture of the divide between rivers?”
“I saw a map,” Cayla replied. “It doesn’t show the height.” She then turned to her sister. “Did you bring any more climbing equipment?”
“Just that rope.”
“And what did Odell say?” Cayla asked. “He must have said something.”
Ayanna looked down and shrugged. “He told me what I told you, to reach the top of the mountain then go down to the river and the castle. He didn’t say anything else. Is the mountain that bad?”
Cayla had a grimace. “Yes. And it’s all smooth. And even if it was easy, we don’t have the equipment.”
Nia looked distant and strangely silent.
Cayla asked her, “What do you think?”
She shrugged. “Well, Odell sent us here. He either wants us to reach Lylah’s castle, or he wants us to be caught.”
“No. No way,” Cayla said.
Nia raised an eyebrow, as if annoyed, then continued, “Well, if he wants us to reach the castle, and if he didn’t send us any equipment, there’s a way down. If he wants us captured, someone will show up and we won’t be able to do much.”
Cayla seemed upset. “I’m absolutely sure Odell didn’t send us here to be captured. He’d never do anything like that. Never.”
“We’ll find a way down tomorrow then,” Nia said. “Nothing to worry about.”
Karina remembered the possibility of being ambushed. More and more this possibility seemed likely. And this mountain looked like the perfect place for that. She wondered why Nia seemed so cool about it. “Aren’t you worried?”
Nia sighed. “I’m tired. But perhaps we could keep watch.” She looked at Cayla, who didn’t seem to like the idea. “Just in case. We’re close to Lylah’s land, we have the king after us, it would be safer. I can go first, then you two.” She pointed at Karina and Cayla.
Cayla pointed at her sister. “Why not her?”
Before Nia replied, Ayanna said, “I can watch. I want to. Please.”
“Fine, all four of us will rotate,” Nia said.
Karina envisioned another poor sleeping night, but she thought it would be better than risking being caught sleeping. Well, they would be caught awake then. She didn’t want to think what the difference was. They sat and shared the last food they had, which wasn’t enough to appease their hunger, at least not Karina’s. For the first time in this world she felt a cool breeze, instead of the stuffy hot weather or the stagnant air from the tunnels.
Cayla looked around and seemed alarmed. “Wait.”
“What’s wrong?” Nia asked.
“Silence,” Cayla said. “I can hear something.”
Karina couldn’t hear anything, but by this time she was so used to being incompetent in her senses that she wasn’t surprised.
Nia looked around. “It’s just the wind.”
“No,” Cayla whispered. “Someone’s coming. We have to get back in the tunnel.”
They all got up, but Nia held Cayla back. “Bad idea. If someone sees us getting in, we’ll be trapped there.”
Cayla closed her eyes, gestured for silence, pointed up and started climbing a tree.
At this point Karina had the impression that she did hear something, but it could be that she was influenced by Cayla. Nia didn’t climb, but gestured to the others to move among some bushes. At least this was easier than going up the tree, and, since it was almost dark, perhaps they wouldn’t be seen—if it was true that someone was coming.
Cayla closed her eyes and heard the world around her. There was wind, Nia, Ayanna’s and Karina’s breathing in the distance, lifts far away, the ocean at a great distance, jaguars in the valley—and someone walking carefully towards them. There was something familiar about those steps. Darian. It had to be him. But then, maybe not. The steps were heavier. She’d been wondering so much where he was that perhaps she was imagining she heard him. Only one person. It wasn’t an ambush then, but it could be a scout. There could be people looking for them in all exits of the tunnels, and perhaps this person was one of them—and she wouldn’t let them get away. She was lucky because the steps came in her direction. As the person walked below her, Cayla saw her chance and jumped, pinning the person to the ground face down. It was a man, back of his head covered by a hood, muscular back and arms, stronger than her. No way she could hold him down by force. But she still had skill.
She pulled his arm behind his back. “Move and I’ll snap it.”
He mumbled something, and she loosened the pressure over his head, just to hear what he’d say.
“It’s me.”
The voice she knew so well. But it didn’t make sense. She had hugged him before. He should have been soft like his voice, the way he’d always been. Cayla moved away from him and got up. He got up and removed a hood that covered his hair and half his face.
“What’s wrong?” Darian asked.
Cayla was still trying to match the person she’d h
eld down to Darian. Even if she’d seen him two days before, somehow her memory was still of the boy she’d met almost two years before. “Sorry. I didn’t know it was you.”
“Do you, now? Cause you don’t look like you recognize me.”
“Well, you are different.”
“Not at all.”
As he said this, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him, hugging her really tight. He felt her head against his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck. She’d been longing for this hug for what felt like an eternity. It was Darian as she’d known.
He whispered, “Do you recognize me now?”
She squeezed him tighter and looked at him. “Uh-huh.”
Their eyes met. Their faces were so close. Cayla didn’t care what anyone would think—she wanted to kiss him.
But he let go of her and stepped back. “Sorry, I…” He shook his head. “I almost forgot.”
He meant what she’d asked him. Not to kiss her. She almost regretted it now, but she could never forget the day she heard they wanted to kill him, and she’d never want to be responsible for that again. At least he had some sense, because she had none. “It’s fine.”
He smiled, then looked at the tree and back at her. “Wow, you had me there. How did you get so good at this?”
Cayla shrugged. “I don’t know. Practice?”
“I thought you stopped wrestling.” He raised an eyebrow. “Who have you been practicing with?”
“Nobody. Just… doing exercises on my own.”
She felt a light in her direction. It was Nia, looking stern, staring at both of them. Karina was right behind her. Nia stepped closer to them, held up a light crystal and illuminated his face. “What’s this? Cayla, how can you do this to us?”
Darian raised his hands, showing the palms. “I came here on my own. I’m not representing anyone. I know the King’s after you, and I came to help.”
