by Morgan Wylie
Both girls stood back to back staring out into the darkness, watching and waiting... but nothing happened. They stood like that for several minutes before saying anything or moving a muscle. There were no other sounds, as though everything around them froze when they did. Kaeleigh was going over in her head what they could do, if anything. They had no weapons, but each of them knew some self-defense thanks to Chel’s dad.
Kaeleigh whispered first. “Keep moving? Stay put? Or scream?”
“Um, keep moving?” Chel answered uncertainly, but Kaeleigh concurred.
Slowly, with arms linked, they kept walking in the direction they hoped was where the guys were. As much as they wanted time alone, Kaeleigh couldn’t actually believe they really let them go off on their own—in a place they had never been, no less. The more she thought about it, the more pissed off she got; after all, they were suppose to be protecting her, and Daegan was suppose to be guiding her. Good luck with that, if she gets lost in the deep dark forest. Daegan’s superiors wouldn’t be happy that was for sure. He should be looking for her, if for no other reason than for his own self-preservation.
UGH! Since when had she needed anyone? When did she stop relying on herself? She took a deep breath, then looked over at her friend, who had selflessly accompanied her into the unknown and had always stood by her side. She would make sure they found their way out. They walked for several minutes without a sound from any direction.
“Do you think whatever was there is gone now?” Chel whispered.
“I dunno, Chel. I don’t think so. I have that feeling you get when someone’s watching you,” Kaeleigh whispered back, squeezing Chel’s arm. “We’ve got to be getting close to where the guys should be.”
Chel nodded. “Is it me or does it seem to be getting darker? Isn’t it close to dawn?”
Kaeleigh replied, “Yeah, it’s getting darker. That’s not right... I can feel dawn. Don’t ask me how, but the sun is starting to rise. Stay close, Chel.” We should have screamed.
Both Kaeleigh and Chel held their torches up, trying to see where they were going, but the fire only lent them a few feet of light in front of them at best. Kaeleigh’s heart sped up and her palms began to sweat. Something wasn’t right; that much was obvious. It didn’t make sense they should be heading back toward the camp. They hadn’t wandered off that far and they walked back directly in the direction that they had come from. Plus they both were pretty decent with direction, especially Chel.
Surprisingly, Kaeleigh didn’t hear the silent slithering across the ground until it was too close. She gripped Chel tighter. It all happened so fast, there was hardly time to register what was happening. She couldn’t hold on. Chel was ripped out of her grasp screaming. A rush of wind with an icy chill extinguished their torches, which had been thrown to the ground. The last thing she saw was Chel’s horror-stricken face being sucked into a void of darkness. Then silence.
✾✾✾
Kaeleigh awakened out of a state of shock that felt like forever—but must have only been mere seconds—shaking, with a cold sweat pouring off her head. There was a loud piercing noise that she could feel in her inner depths, making her chest heave until the moment she realized it was her screaming Chel’s name over and over into the darkness. Anger like she had not known or had allowed herself to know flooded out from within her. Tingling shocks went through her body and—somehow—out from her fingertips. A fire sparked life on the end of her torch lying on the ground a few feet away from her. Surprised, but not allowing herself to think about it, she pulled herself up from the ground and grabbed the torch. She paused, willing herself to listen for any signs of movement, any signs at all as to which way her friend had been taken. Tears streamed down her face. She stood there, refused to believe or to even think of the possibility that her friend was lost to her, when she heard the faint sound of a struggle in the distance. Yes! Kaeleigh took off in the direction of the sound, not even caring what she might be running into other than the hope she might find Chel—alive.
A blinding light burst right in front of Kaeleigh, and she skidded to a stop with her arms held up in front of her face. There was a noise, what Kaeleigh could only imagine to be whispering by several different voices making up a strange static sound and a feeling of familiarity not unlike what she had felt before, but without the pain. She cautiously began to lower her hands in an attempt to see something, but all she could do was squint, hoping the light wouldn’t blind her. She had to find Chel. She felt defeat begin to overwhelm her, and then she heard her name whispered. Again trying to look into the light, she caught a squinted glimpse of something... a face. No body, just a face. A face without much definition that seemed to be altering and morphing into multiple faces all at the same time.
The voices spoke as one voice, again in whispered tones but louder this time. “Kaeleigh... Kaeleigh... time is short... you must listen... your friend needs you.”
“Who are you? Can you help me find Chel? I need to find her! Please!” Kaeleigh shouted desperately at the face floating before her with tears streaming down her face.
The face flew right up in front of her. Kaeleigh jumped in surprise but did not back down. “Listen,” the voices said again, “time and space have been suspended and altered in this place. You have what you need to bring her freedom, but beware as she is not the one sought after... It’s a... They need... You need... in the end. Keep them close... to be set free...” The voice began buzzing and fading out like a radio station cutting in and out.
“Wait! What? Who needs to be set free? How do I get Chel? Wait...” Kaeleigh shouted at nothing as the face faded away and the light became darkness again as quickly as it had come. Looking around her, Kaeleigh realized she could see what was in front of her. I can see! It was still dark but somehow she could see through the darkness like a veil.
Kaeleigh was shocked to see that not more than a yard in front of her was a stone wall that stretched far above her, three stories at least. Where did that come from? It was partially concealed by an innumerable amount of crawling vines and branches. Next to her, a crevice of blackness was nestled—hidden—into the side of the cliff. All behind her were thick groupings of trees, but these trees didn’t have the same feel of the ones that she had just been surrounded with; these felt dark and creepy. Not only did they appear to form a barrier behind her, but they actually physically started to grow and weave together.
Panic again started to well up within Kaeleigh. Trapped. It would have been nice if this part of what the Voices had told her had come through clearly. It didn’t matter, she still would have come if it meant she had the slightest chance to help her best friend, her sister. Chel. At that reminder Kaeleigh surveyed her surroundings. It was a cave. She sighed. Of course it is. Kaeleigh’s heart accelerated. She has to be in the cave! Well, something has to be in the cave, Kaeleigh thought, having already made up her mind.
Heading toward the cave, Kaeleigh spotted a sharp-pointed stick not too far away. She ran to grab it, thinking a weapon of any kind might come in handy. Behind her there was the same slithering sound she heard right before Chel was taken. Quickly, she spun around, stick pointed out reflexively. She couldn’t believe her eyes.
The trees were knitting themselves together tighter, causing them to move forward, herding Kaeleigh back toward the cliff wall behind her. Although she wasn’t sure why she was surprised; after all, she was in a fantasy land where she didn’t know what was possible or what the rules were. Before she had a chance to run into the cave, vines snaked out from behind the wall of trees that suddenly appeared to be quite impenetrable and pushed her forcibly against the cliff behind her. Kaeleigh struggled. The vines slithered around her ankles and wrists like snakes, anchoring her to the netting of vines and branches behind her against the cliff face. Still she struggled, and the vines slithered and snaked around her waist, securing her even tighter to the wall. She could hardly move, but still she writhed and wiggled in an effort to gain even an inch more.
Desperately trying to suppress her barely contained panic, Kaeleigh looked frantically around her for something, anything, she could use to help her fight her way out. She had to get out. Chel was depending on her and she didn’t know how much time she had to get to her. Flashes of the words from the Voices and from Daegan about being the one they had been waiting for and setting someone free were running like a reel in her head then suddenly stopped. Kaeleigh remembered the pointy stick she had picked up; it was still tightly gripped in her hand.
“I don’t know who you all think I am, but I know I’m not going to let you hold me here,” Kaeleigh ground out between her teeth with intense frustration. She released a shout that had been growing deep within her—the cry of a fighter, the cry of a lost warrior.
She fought with her body harder than she had ever fought before, all the while thinking of Chel and how desperately she needed to find her. Suddenly the vines gave just an inch or two, but it was enough for Kaeleigh to position her hand. She stabbed the vine holding her waist with the pointy end of the stick. The vine let out a screech and hiss before recoiling back into the wall and falling limp where she had pierced it. Growing hot in the unrelenting grip of her hand, the sharp stick seemed to infuse her with strength and energy.
Again and again she stabbed at whatever vines she could reach until they had released her. She fell to the ground, scrambling away from the wall but not getting too close to the infantry of trees either. Panting and trying to catch her breath, she gripped her stick, pointing it out and all around her to ensure that the vines stayed slain where they lay on the ground. Though terrified and shaking, she felt strong and empowered.
As her breathing slowed, she realized that the stick she had felt heavier and smoother in her hands. She looked down at what was no longer a pointed piece of nature but a beautiful, shiny, ornate sword, and she gasped in awe, completely confused, but not having time to consider it as there was rustling in the barrier of trees surrounding her. Grunts and hollers of satisfaction and victory were coming from behind or from somewhere within the web of vines and layers of branches that were woven tight. The impenetrable wall was slowly being brought to its destruction. Branches, leaves, and vines were being thrown in the air and trampled underfoot as metal slashed away and eviscerated the tangled web. As thankful as she was to see the wall being torn apart, she didn’t know what was about to break through to where she waited, sword drawn out in front of her trembling slightly as her adrenaline wore off. She was a mess; hair in knots, clothes disheveled, surface cuts, and what for sure would be bruises all over her body from the vines. But she would fight.
With a final “HA!” and vigorous hacks from swords, the last layer of the wall of trees fell. Bursting through came two fierce warriors of an unearthly kind. They took her breath away, bringing relief at the same time.
“Kaeleigh!” Finn shouted as he ran to her and gripped her in a tight hug. “You’re okay! You are okay, right?”
Kaeleigh, more than a little relieved, hugged him back with tears running down her face. “Chel—they took Chel! You have to help me, we have to find her.” Still holding onto Finn, she raised her eyes and looked back toward the wall, where Daegan was still standing, holding his sword and staring at her with a blind intensity in his eyes. She couldn’t tell if he was angry or just being... intense. Infuriated that he would be angry at them, at her, for what happened, she pushed Finn away and marched over to Daegan, gesturing at him with the hilt end of her new sword.
“You are supposed to be protecting us! How could you let this happen? Why didn’t you follow us? We heard you.” She kept marching at him. “Chel’s gone and you’re angry at me? Where do you get off?”
Kaeleigh wanted to fight. She needed to take her fury out on someone, but he didn’t even try to fight her back, which only made her more infuriated. In the background of her yelling, Finn was apologizing to her, trying to calm her down, trying to tell her that they had been “detained” by the evil vines and were being kept away. She either didn’t hear him or didn’t acknowledge what he was saying as she kept yelling at Daegan; there was strangely some satisfaction in being able to yell at him, to blame him... someone... when she was really so angry at herself for getting Chel kidnapped. It’s all my fault.
Finally, Daegan interrupted her rant with one of his own. “YES! I am angry. You should not have gone off on your own in a strange—not to mention enchanted—place, especially a dark forest like this. You should know better. You should have stayed with me.” He sighed. “But mostly I am angry at myself. I let you go. I didn’t hear the simultaneous attack, I couldn’t fight them off fast enough to get to you.” With his jaw clenched he inhaled through his nostrils, then he amended it with, “To you and Chel, before it was too late.”
Daegan and Kaeleigh both paused, breathing deeply and staring at each other in the uncomfortable, intense moment they had created. Each with nothing more to say and yet the silence was heavy with the expectation that there was more to be said.
Out of the silence, Finn brought the situation to an immediate change, his voice laced with worry and something sounding like anger. “Kaeleigh? How do we find Chel? Who took her?”
Abruptly, Kaeleigh turned to face Finn. When she did she saw a complexity in the emotions in his face that she had not seen before, and it gave her pause. She took wobbly steps toward him and tripped over the tip of her sword. Finn reached out to steady her as Daegan’s audible gasp caused them both to quickly turn to see what he reacted to.
“Kaeleigh? Where did you get that sword?” Daegan said with suspicion, awe, reverence, and fear all rolled into one.
“Oh, that,” she said, looking over the amazing sword with detailed scroll work along the cross-guard. “Well, my stick turned into it when I was fighting with the vines. I don’t know how it happened,” Kaeleigh answered somewhat sheepishly, knowing it sounded crazy. When they both looked at her like she was crazy she told them quickly about being blinded by light, the Voices that tried to speak to her, and how she was attacked and pinned to the wall by the evil vines. Not willing to get too close, she pointed toward the wall, showing them proof of the lifeless vines strewn on the ground. Had they not had battled the vines themselves, she was sure that part of the story would be proof that she was indeed nuts.
But looking back at the destroyed vines on the ground revealed more than what she remembered leaving there. She gasped. Where the vines had been growing cliffside, there were now several small orchids budding, full of life. Oddly, when she turned back to the guys, she found the opposite of what she expected: Daegan pale and Finn suspiciously satisfied.
“What are they doing here?” She pointed a shaking finger back at the orchids.
“What do you mean?” Daegan asked.
“Those are my orchids! They’ve followed me around all my life.” Kaeleigh spoke with a lump in her throat. Not knowing what they meant or where they came from, she was endeared to them just the same. And now here, of all places, they came to give her comfort.
Startling her out of her moment, Daegan whispered, strangely shocked but pointing to the stick-turned-sword. “Kaeleigh? Do you know what that is or what it could mean?”
Kaeleigh frowned at him. “It’s a sword,” she replied sarcastically, but without a reaction from him she continued, “As for whose it is or where it came from... I have no idea. How would I know? I barely know anything about this place.” She then looked at Finn to gauge his reaction as he remained silently observing.
Daegan regaining his usual stoicism that Kaeleigh was beginning to believe to be a facade, squared his shoulders, and began to head toward the crevice in the wall. “I’ll explain as we go. We must get to Chel. Quickly.”
They couldn’t have agreed more on anything. Daegan led their way into the dark cave while Finn brought up the rear, leaving Kaeleigh right in the middle of her two warriors. At least I have a sword now too.
Chapter Twenty-four
“Kaeleigh, stay close. Yo
u never know what might be in the darkness,” Finn cautioned as he held out one of the sticks that they had picked up to light. Daegan had used magic to give flame to his own and to Kaeleigh’s but when he started to light Finn’s he smiled wickedly at him and added, “No, you never know what might be in the darkness, do you, Finn?” Then he turned his back and kept walking into the dark cave, leaving Finn’s torch unlit.
Kaeleigh turned to Finn and spoke loudly. “Well, that was just rude! Here, Finn, light yours off of mine. What was that all about anyway?” Finn shrugged without looking at Kaeleigh but staring blankly after Daegan ahead of them.
“Come on, we don’t want to lose him... Well, actually, I do but not in here,” Finn added with a smirky smile, pushing Kaeleigh on ahead of him.
Kaeleigh sighed. “Ugh, another dark, dank cave. I hate the dark. I hate caves, especially this one. It feels... dark.”
Finn replied with a lighthearted, “Um, that’s because it is dark.”
“Nice,” she said as she rolled her eyes at him. “No, I mean it actually feels dark... like evil dark. Can’t you feel it?”
Both Daegan and Finn answered, “Yes.”
But Daegan continued, "This is one of the caves at Vuldün. There have been whisperings of darkness—evil—here.”
“I think it’s more than just a rumor,” Kaeleigh said as she held herself and tried to look around.
As they walked, the light from their torches bounced off the compacted dirt walls. Above them dangled tangled messes of roots that had broken through their earth’s boundary. A musty smell attempted to choke Kaeleigh, and she tried to breathe as little of the air as possible. She had brought the front of her shirt up over her mouth in attempt to squelch the noxious odor. Where the light hit on the tunnel around them, it sent creatures scurrying back into the darkness behind them. Kaeleigh tried to shake off the chills that kept running up and down her spine. The creepy-crawlies did not help.
