by Walsh, Sara
A flash of light sped past the front of the church. A blue car burst into focus and then vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
“I tried to warn you,” said Sol, regret clear in his tone.
Sol had tried to prepare me for what I was about to see, and once again, I’d ignored him, charging off on my own as if I knew better, when clearly I knew nothing at all.
“This is what happens when the Barrier encounters one of your towns,” he said. “The Barrier embraces nature. Life. Where it finds those things, both our worlds exist undisturbed, one within the other. But the Barrier was created thousands of years before all of this.” He gestured to Onaly. “It didn’t know what was coming.”
It was overwhelming. Sol’s shrinking world lay bare before me. The shading over Onaly and Crownsville on the map at Old Man Crowley’s finally made sense.
“The Barrier can absorb some things on your side,” said Delane, with a shrug. “The occasional road, a farm. But your towns and cities are too dense. They’re too packed with materials it doesn’t understand. It loses itself, unable to understand what exists on the Other Side. Lands we have once shared have become yours.”
It was monstrous, grotesque, unfair. Below, another car appeared and then vanished. Two houses stood fused together, one a Brakaland house, judging by its stone walls. Two worlds colliding.
“We won’t make it out, will we?” I asked. “That’s why the sentinels let us go.”
“We’ll make it,” said Sol. “We have no choice but to pass through the town. North takes us too far from our trail. South, and the land turns craggy and steep as it approaches the valley. We’d never get the horses through. The quickest way is to forge straight on. In less than an hour, we’ll put the Wastes behind us and reach the Shorlan Pass. From there we can enter the valley.”
Bookended by the two guys, I looked from one to the other. Sol, strong and restrained on one side, Delane, energetic and optimistic on the other. It was time to trust them.
“Then let’s do it,” I said.
Maybe my resolve had surprised him, but when I looked at Sol to confirm that we should move, I caught him watching me with admiration. He pulled back the look as if realizing that I’d noticed. His gaze turned to Onaly. “We stop for nothing,” he said. “Every minute we spend here, the Barrier is trying to absorb us.”
I glanced back down the hill toward the rabbit. “And what about him?”
“It’s not truly alive, Mia,” said Sol, softly. “It’s probably been here for months, even years. I’m sure it reached the point of oblivion a long time ago.”
The walk into Onaly was the strangest of my life. The closer we came to the town, the more I caught reality turned on its head. Remains of the Brakaland homes that had once stood there appeared more frequently. Few were intact. A wooden wall with a window at its center bisected a picket fence in the garden of one of the Onaly homes. A sidewalk had half swallowed a wooden door, like a tooth sticking out of concrete gums.
Voices and traffic noise burst from the air. An invisible car door banged. Footsteps followed, then faded away, a snippet of a ghostly half-life that existed unseen. On the other side of the Barrier, it was just a normal day in Onaly.
“How do you feel?” asked Delane.
My skin tingled. My ears buzzed. “Weird,” I replied. “I know these places.”
As we passed through downtown, I touched the wall of Harper’s Ice Cream Parlor. I always got my favorite combo there—black raspberry, chocolate chip, French vanilla. Two doors down, a pale pink fog covered Rainy Days, the junk shop where Willie and I had bought gag gifts for the volleyball team last year.
About fifteen minutes later, we were at the junction of Main Street and Third. A couple of blocks and we’d pass the church and Onaly would be almost behind us.
“It’s not far now,” I said.
Finally, the buildings receded and the road disappeared beneath a blanket of grass.
Once clear of town, I took a final look back. Onaly lay under a hazy mist.
“There’s nothing that can be done,” said Sol, with a rueful shake of the head. “You should put it from your mind.”
But how could I when all over this world a short-circuited Barrier was struggling to maintain its hold?
Back on the horses, we pressed on across the prairie. Soon a cool breeze touched my face. Reality returning. Forested peaks waited ahead, the landscape turning from grassland to rock. Patches of red mist appeared in pools.
“It comes from the valley,” said Delane, gesturing to the fog. “We’re close to the Shorlan Pass.”
Riding behind Delane’s broad back, it was difficult for me to make out the pass until we were almost on it. Pine and spruce grew beside a rocky path. Little more than a few feet wide, it descended steeply into dark forest below. Two life-size male figures, carved from wood, guarded either side of the trail. One faced in toward the valley, the other out toward the prairie. The red mist covered their feet.
“Freemen,” said Delane. “Here to welcome us to the valley.”
It wasn’t much of a welcome. There really wasn’t anything here. The mist thickened as soon as we entered the forest. Little sunlight penetrated the canopy above.
I ached all over, but at least another hour passed before Sol slowed. We’d still not cleared the woods.
Delane drew up alongside. “Do you smell something?” he asked.
Sol held a red crystal in his palm, the one from Rip’s hearth that had glowed when the visage demon had appeared the night before. Light radiated from it. “Something’s tracking us,” he said. “That didn’t take long.”
My heart sank. I didn’t know how much more of this I could take. I felt ignorant and useless, cast off from the things I knew. It was Saturday. I was supposed to have an extra shift at Mickey’s. Rifkin’s debate waited unfinished on my desk. Only, that life no longer felt real. There was no Willie, no Kieran or Seth here. That was all just a game I’d once played.
Movement came from trees to my right. It was so rapid that I was barely even sure that I saw it. I held on tight to Delane.
Again. To the left. Something was out there, and not the sentinels with their thundering steps. Whatever it was moved even faster. One moment there, the next, gone.
The horses stirred. Ours took a backward step.
“This is bad,” I whispered.
A gray face suddenly stared up at me from the side of the horse. Its head was narrow, its features stretched, the skin mottled with blue. Black eyes, with a thousand faces, watched me. A skeletal hand reached for the horse. Then it vanished.
Our horse reared before I could even scream. Down I went. I landed with a breathtaking thud, the hilt of my sword hard beneath my hip. Sol and Delane leapt to the ground. Both raised their swords, standing between me and the woods.
“It was a shadow imp,” said Delane, gasping. “It appeared right by us.”
Sol scanned our surroundings, every muscle in his body braced. “Did you see where it went?”
Delane shook his head. “We’ll have to wait until it reappears.”
I scrambled to my feet, drew my sword, and then wedged myself firmly between Sol and Delane. “It was gross,” I said, barely able to catch breath from the fall. “All gray and funny-looking.”
“They’re blood hunters,” said Sol. “A type of demon. It’s after the horses.”
I patted our horse, who was freaked. I knew just how the poor thing felt.
“There,” said Delane, pointing to our left.
In a flash, the shadow imp appeared less than ten feet away. Another flash. Then another. Now there were three. Both horses reared and then bolted into the trees. Just as fast, the imps disappeared. Without word or warning, Sol sprinted after them.
“Don’t!” I yelled. “Sol!”
Too late. The gloom consumed him in seconds. I made to follow, but got only a couple of steps before Delane yanked me back. “Mia, you can’t.”
“They’ll kill him!”
I tugged my arm free, horror-struck that Sol would do something so reckless. “Sol!”
I again made to follow. This time Delane grabbed my hand. He didn’t let go.
“It’s okay,” he said, wrestling me back. “Mia! They can’t touch him!”
“But—”
I didn’t finish. A gray face peered out from behind a tree. Deep scars covered its chin where the clutch of black fangs that hung from its mouth had torn the skin. Clawed fingers scratched the bark.
Delane spun me around. “Back! Mia, get back!”
I froze.
The shadow imp lunged. Instinct kicked in. I blindly thrust my sword and prayed for a hit.
The shadow imp leaped clear of the stroke. Its arms whipped the air, striking Delane across the side of his head, lifting him clear off his feet. Delane crashed to the ground. He didn’t move.
Blade out, I forced myself to hold the demon’s gaze. But the creature wasn’t intimidated. It wanted one thing: Delane’s blood.
“Don’t even think about it,” I yelled, recalling something I’d seen on Animal Planet about grizzly attacks and making yourself big and mean. Or was that lie down and play dead? I could never remember. But my yell was enough to regain the demon’s attention.
Pop. It was gone. A heartbeat passed. The imp reappeared, inches from my face. Breath, like vomit, poured from its mouth as its fangs aimed for my neck.
I started to shove the creature back, then remembered I still gripped my sword. With a scream, I pulled back the blade, the fangs almost at my throat, and thrust with all my strength. My stroke grazed its side.
The imp hissed. It staggered forward, its weight crashing into me. Off balance, I stumbled. The hem of my skirt caught beneath my heels and I toppled back. Together we fell, its arms around me as if I were dancing with death.
I landed with a thud. Time slowed. The imp writhed against me. Then a yell, a scream. A flash of color like a matador’s cape swept over us. Delane’s blue shirt. He was alive!
The imp pummeled my chest as it tried to escape. My lungs emptied beneath the blows.
Then blackness seized me and I was out for the count.
FOURTEEN
The first thing I saw when I came to was a blurry face staring down into mine. I blinked a couple of times and Delane’s smile slipped into focus. “Mia?”
Sweat glistened on his forehead. Leaves clung to his hair.
“You’re okay,” I said, in a daze.
“Just a bump,” Delane replied. “Can you get up?”
My chest felt bruised where the imp had struck me and my hip sore from when I’d fallen from our horse, but everything seemed to work fine. “I think I’m okay. The imp?”
“It got away,” said Delane. “Shadow imps won’t fight when they’re cornered. It disappeared into the forest not long after you collapsed. There wasn’t much I could do to stop it. You saw how fast they are.”
I made to rise. “Delane!” I gasped. “Sol!”
“Not back yet.” He helped me to my feet. “But he’ll be fine, Mia. Trust me on this.”
Seemingly satisfied that I wasn’t about to collapse, he released his hold. I brushed the dirt from my dress, took a couple of breaths, and felt some of the tightness lessen in my chest.
“It’s the dream bird, isn’t it?” I said.
Delane pulled back as if he wasn’t sure what I meant.
“The Lunestral. On Sol’s back. He told me it protects him from demons.”
“I didn’t realize you knew.”
“Sol told me about it in Crownsville,” I replied. “Jay has the same tattoo. Didn’t work so good for him.”
Delane made an apologetic shrug. The gesture said more than words, its meaning clear: Don’t worry. Jay will be fine. He squeezed my hand and in that moment I thought he might actually be one of the nicest guys I’d ever met.
I grabbed my sword from the ground. There was no blood on the blade. “I thought I hit it,” I said, disappointed.
Delane shook his head. “But from the part I saw, you made a good go at it.”
I sheathed my sword. “I pretty much fell on my ass, didn’t I?”
I laughed, couldn’t help it. Soon, Delane laughed too.
“Pretty much,” said Delane. “But it was a valiant effort.”
He grabbed me for a hug and our laughter echoed. Finally it felt as if there was some life in this place. It just needed an excuse to burst free. A little like when I’d opened my eyes to Crownsville after moving from Des Moines. Mrs. Shankles would have been proud.
Twigs snapped on the edge of the clearing. Delane dropped his arm from my shoulder. We spun around, Delane reaching for his sword, just as Sol and the horses stepped out from between the trees.
For a guy who’d just chased demons through the forest, Sol didn’t appear breathless. In fact, I wasn’t sure how he seemed. The slightest trace of a frown appeared on his face as he looked from me to Delane. He handed Delane the reins to our horse. “I could hear you two from a mile away,” he said.
Something had bugged him, but it was impossible to tell what it was. We’d got the horses back, we were in one piece, what more could he want? A second ago Delane and I had been laughing and hugging, now I felt like it had been wrong to celebrate the fact that we were alive. I wanted to ask him what was wrong, but as always with Sol, I doubted he’d tell me if he didn’t want to confess. I’d never met a guy so difficult to read.
“You’re okay,” I muttered, instead. “What were you thinking?”
“That without the horses we’d be lucky to make it another hour. Those things are still out there. You need to stay quiet.”
Okay, I really didn’t want anything to happen to him. I certainly didn’t want my guts to plummet like they had when he’d sprinted after the horses. But . . . come on.
“Does he ever lighten up?” I whispered to Delane.
Delane considered the question for some time. “Not so much. But he’s right. We should move on before we run into more imps. They always gather in the valley.”
We continued our trek through the never ending woodland, down the never ending slope to the valley floor, the red mist our only company. My hip throbbed. My butt ached. Even Delane’s spirits seemed to have sunk.
“The mist,” I said, after what felt like hours of silence. “It gives me a headache.”
“It does that,” said Sol. Whatever mood had gripped him earlier seemed to have left him. He’d slowed a little over the last few miles. Now he rode at our side.
“Where does it come from?”
“It’s residue from all the dark magic conjured here during the Great War. It’s trapped in the valley. It could take years to fade.” He shifted in his saddle. “I wonder if the valley can ever go back to what it was.”
“What was it like?” I asked.
“It was once one of the most beautiful places in Brakaland,” replied Sol. I caught his sigh. “The mist builds during the day. It should clear a little by morning.”
The sunlight had faded by the time we stopped to rest, and I was desperate for the break. I made my announcement as soon as my feet touched the ground: “I’ve got to go.”
“Go where?” asked Delane.
“Girls’ business,” I replied. “I’ll be over there.” I pointed off to . . . well, to where there were more trees and mist. I unbuckled my sword, glad to get rid of it—master wielder that I now was. I handed it to Delane. “And if you don’t mind, please turn your backs.”
Sol smiled, but for some reason, Delane still appeared mystified. Maybe whichever of the thousand races he came from didn’t, as a rule, have to pee.
Though I didn’t go far from the temporary camp, I couldn’t see the guys as I made my way back to the horses.
“Hello?”
I cleared my throat and tried not to think of shadow imps popping from out of thin air.
“Guys?”
Sol and Delane couldn’t have gone far or have expected to be away for
long, because their packs lay on the ground. Increasingly nervous, I stroked one of the horses, mostly for the comfort of touching a living thing. That was when I heard their voices.
I say voices, but it was whispers, the kind of whisper you make when you’re trying really hard to keep your voice from rising. I slipped between the horses to get closer.
“Solandun, we can’t take her there. What are we supposed to tell her?”
“We don’t tell her anything. We sleep there and then leave in the morning. It’s the safest place to camp.”
“It wouldn’t feel right.”
“I understand, Delane, but getting her out of the valley is most important. Orion is only a few hours from the house. We’re trusting luck if we stay out in the open tonight.”
I crept toward the voices.
“Then let’s choose another house,” insisted Delane.
“Who knows how far we’ll have to go to find one that’s standing. We can’t risk the villages after dark; there’s too many demons lurking around for them to be safe. We know the house can be secured—like last time.”
“This isn’t like last time. This is piling lies on top of lies.”
“It’s not a lie,” said Sol.
A few more steps and I caught sight of Sol’s back.
“It’s pointless throwing all this at her,” he said. “It won’t change anything, Delane. She has to go back.”
“But it’s not up to us to make those decisions for her.”
Good manners dictated that I should have stayed hidden or turned back for the horses and waited for them to return as if nothing had happened. I’d had enough of good manners.
“What decision?” I asked, and stepped out from the trees.
Sol spun around. Delane cringed and then looked to the ground. “I’m going to check the horses,” he said. He patted Sol’s shoulder as he walked off. It was a typical guy-avoiding-bad-news move. Some things never changed, no matter what world you lived in.
Sol and I stood in silence. He seemed ready to speak a few times only to change his mind and clam up.
“Well?” I asked.
He looked truly uncomfortable. “Mia, I—”
