Spirits

by Leslie Edens Copeland

  I shuddered. "I imagine it can certainly hold me, then," I said. "I'm nothing here in the Underwood.

  "Yes," said Emmett. "There is a strong possibility we may never get out of here."

  I clasped my hands together. "Not if I can help it. I'm going to incant you. Here goes," I said. I launched into the incantation.

  Plouton, Aletheia, Bellum, All,

  Come together, unwrite the fall,

  Return what subdivision stole,

  Restore his memory, make All whole.

  "Wait, Aether!" shouted Emmett, but it was already done. I watched anxiously for the golden glow to burst from Emmett, or perhaps he'd take a form as large as this cave, or become a mighty warrior capable of blasting us out.

  Emmett only floated next to me, giving off that same weak ghostly glow.

  I poked him gently with my finger and watched my finger sink through him. "It didn't work?"

  "It didn't work," said Emmett.

  "Cruxing Bellum's bells. Why not?" I said.

  "The Underwood is designed to contain a spirit god's power," said Emmett. "We originally sealed it against Plouton, but it should be able to hold any spirit deity and keep them in a less powerful state. It's not going to allow me more power."

  "The All is no more," I said sadly.

  "Yes," said Emmett. "No more Bellum, either. Three spirit gods, all trapped down here. It's a blessing that Lady Mystery never got involved in this foolishness. She will rule the spirit world from this time forth and perhaps she will be the One Goddess in the very end."

  I shivered with fear, but then a light flashed in my eyes and distracted me. I squinted into the murky space of the cave ceiling above.

  "Look, Em!" I said. "It's the portal where we came down. Daylight! Is this really the last we'll ever see of it?"

  "Deadlight, actually," said Emmett in a gloomy voice. "We can't get out that way. Remember the suction? I've been taught since early days that there's no way out of the Underwood. But I suppose that doesn't stop us from trying."

  An idea blazed in my head. "The ring!" I said. I held it up. By our combined glow, we inspected the large stone on my finger.

  "Dead Town, Dead Town, Dead Town!" I said. The ring gave a little flash, then its light faded like a burned-out battery.

  "Not even a map!" said Emmett. "Well, that makes sense. If I can't manifest as the All down here, the All's enchantments certainly aren't going to work."

  I groaned, but then another idea lit up my mind. "Em, maybe I can portal us out!"

  "Of course, my little protégée! You can make us a portal! Oh, if only I had known earlier that you could do that. A ridiculously rare and valuable talent. Columbia will laugh at me for not testing you more thoroughly. If I ever hear from the council again." Emmett kicked the air, disconsolate. "If I had known you could do that—"

  "You wouldn't have had to die," I said.

  The lump that had formed in my throat would not go away, so I focused on making a portal instead. Putting my ring hand to my forehead, I reached for the place above the wood. Sweat rose to my brow as I concentrated. Emmett cheered a moment later and pointed to a funny pinpoint hole that spun in the darkness before us. I reached out, but before I could tough it, the pinpoint whipped up and away. It was sucked into the vacuum of the Underwood portal above and expelled into the upper world. I groaned.

  Again, I focused, reached for the land above. Again, a pinpoint formed—then the embryo portal flew into the Underwood portal, sucked away into nothingness.

  Frustrated and wiped out, I leaned on a large boulder to rest. Emmett patted my shoulder.

  "It was a nice try. Perhaps it simply won't work so close to the Underwood portal," he said.

  I nodded, blowing my hair out of my face. "We could try from farther away."

  "Search around a little." Emmett gazed off into the depths of the cavern.

  I said, "Somebody down here's got answers. Your people don't know everything. No offense, but they've never been down here. And just because no one's ever returned—"

  Emmett turned to me swiftly. His pale, glowing face appeared spooked. "To my knowledge, a mortal has never been to the Underwood," he said. "That's unheard of. Maybe it will reject you or spit you out. You certainly don't belong here. We're beyond death, down here. This is the final death, death for the dead. And you're fully alive."

  "You mean the Underwood is double death?" I asked. We began walking. I scrambled over some large rocks. Emmett misted through, talking with his finger raised.

  "Double death, sure. Spirits are entrapped here, dead and doubly dead." His white face flickered in alarm.

  "Scary," I agreed. "It certainly killed the All's god powers. Wonder where they went?"

  "Er," said Emmett. He scratched at the part in his hair. "In fact, I can't quite remember . . . I know you're right, Aether. They do go somewhere."

  "Hidden in ten thousand places," I said simply.

  "Yes." He stopped suddenly, frozen in amazement. "That sounds right. How ever did you guess?"

  "I'm psychic, remember?" I said, scaling a large clump of rock. "Also, it was in the incantation you gave me for subdividing."

  "Indeed," said Emmett. "Anyway, I usually leave a few clues lying around. Mostly for myself." He threw a rock. It sailed off into the darkness and clattered to the ground many feet away.

  "God, this place is big," I said.

  "I told you, I'm not a god anymore," said Emmett, lifting his lecturing finger. Before he could start in, I took his hand.

  "So I can do this?" I kissed his cheek quickly. It left a cold, wet sensation on my nose and lips that tingled.

  Emmett spluttered in shock. "Yes—yes. You can do that," he stammered. Then, rather sadly, he said, "And I can do this."

  He surrounded me with his arms and kissed me full on the lips. I tilted my face up eagerly, my heart thudding. Then I jumped. At first, the kiss was soft and warm—until a cold mist chilled me and a sharp zap stung my lips. I backed away, my hands to my mouth.

  Emmett bent away from me. A sigh moved through him, not from his lungs but through his whole body. "That's all I can do. I realize it is not exactly pleasurable for mortals."

  I rubbed my numb mouth. Then I reached out to him. My hands passed through his turned-away back. I licked my lips, remembering. I took Emmett's hand in mine once more, though it ghosted in and out.

  "Is this okay?" I asked. Emmett nodded. He blinked back what I could swear were spectral tears. He did his best to firm up his hand.

  Together, we set out.

  Hand in hand, we strode through the darkness for what felt like hours. Or perhaps it really had been only a few minutes. Time stood still in this place, even more so than in Dead Town. I couldn't feel the moments passing at all. The cavern also didn't seem to be passing as we traveled through it. On and on it stretched. Our slow progress appeared to make no difference.

  At first, I sent out a portal every ten feet. After dozens of them had whisked away into nothing, I decided to save my strength.

  "I wonder how long we've been down here?" I said, after what felt like days. "Why is it I never get hungry?"

  "You wouldn't get hungry upstairs either," Emmett pointed out.

  "Sometimes I do. Okay, maybe not like in the mortal realm." He was right. That irked me a little. "If no one gets hungry, why have cake at your parties?"

  I squinted into the distance, which wasn't any different than looking into the darkness right in front of me. Nothing had changed. Dark, echoey, a few bobbing lights—same old Underwood.

  "Not everything has to make mortal sense all the time, Aether," said Emmett in a chiding voice. "There are many mysteries that can't be solved. As to the cake—we have cake because we like cake. Cake adds that bit of style that makes it a party and not just a gathering of the spirits."

  I stuck my tongue out. Mysteries that couldn't be solved! What did he know? I suddenly felt very cranky with Emmett.

  "Let me get this straight," I said in a low g
rumble. "The cake at your parties is an enhancement to give flair to your otherwise worthless non-existence."

  Emmett nodded approvingly. "Exactly. I'm glad you take my meaning." He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "Crux, you do sound dreary, though. You haven't sounded like that since the Disenchanted Forest up above, when you first visited the spirit realm."

  Together, we gazed up. The dim light of the cavern showed very little, but our collective glow plus a few floating orbs revealed a gnarled, enormous something stretching high above us. I could smell a rotten, organic scent.

  I took a step and tripped over a swollen tree root that had grown across the cave floor. Emmett grabbed my arm to keep me from falling.

  "A slough tree!" shouted Emmett, pointing up at the massive, twisting shape. The rough surface resembled plant life, but this was so big, it was more like a plant wall.

  He turned to me. "Do you remember sticking your head into one when we were up above?"

  "Yeah, those were good times," I said. When Emmett smiled, I barked, "No, of course I don't remember! I was depressed out of my mind in that forest!"

  "Oh, indeed! At last, something I remember and you don't! All right . . ." Emmett rubbed his hands together, warming into his story. "You went up to the slough tree and put your forehead on it like this—see, Aether? And the tree sucked your head in, so I said, 'Don't put your head in there,' and you didn't listen. I had to coax you out again. Lucky thing I did, too, because the Feeders came and I decided we'd better fly."

  He grinned with immense pleasure at the memory, but I wriggled in irritation. Did he have to lecture? Why was he always so cruxing pleased with himself?

  "I never did that!" I scowled. "I would remember!"

  "You did! Exactly like this." Emmett sank his head deep into the trunk of the enormous tree root.

  I shook my head at him. When he popped out again, I said, "I wasn't like that. It was like this."

  I put my head up against the tree's rough bark. My head rested on it like a mosquito on the surface of a pond. Then a mighty slurping noise filled my ears and a sticky suction surrounded me. It pulled at my whole body and enveloped me. I struggled and found myself frozen. Through an amber haze, I viewed Emmett's shocked face. He shouted, his mouth open and his arms waving around, but my ears wouldn't work.

  I tried to call out, but my mouth felt gummed shut. In minutes, a sluggishness overtook me and my eyes closed. My body to feel crushed from head to toe. I couldn't possibly be breathing. Visions came into my mind's eye: my childhood at the Vic, spying on séances and running after Sam. The grungy apartment after Dad died, when Shirleen worked double shifts as a waitress in town. Then Bruce's junkyard and the double-wide, the dirty sandlot and the unbelievable isolation.

  My life was flashing before my eyes. I must be dying, I thought. At least I will be with Emmett soon.

  But the visions continued, relentlessly flooding my mind's eye.

  I saw the morning Sam disappeared, as I searched for him in the teardrop trailer. Then the Paranormals in front of my locker and me I asking for their help to find him. I saw Oskar's handsome smile and auburn hair, as he gestured for me to enter the cemetery and escape the attack of the Turned Against. Then Valente, haunting the old school bus, with his genial grin and green bus driver's uniform. Valente's form turned black-and-white and there was Emmett, in his stiff Victorian suit with his spider. He looked exactly as he'd been when I first encountered him in the junkyard, coming out of nowhere like some otherworldly Cheshire cat. I tried to reach out to him from my vision but I remained paralyzed. Then the vision shifted.

  In a cave of red rock, a bedraggled figure stood in a trench coat and boots. He had a lean face and dirty blond hair that stuck up in back. My father, Able d'Espers, as I remembered him before he died. He held his hand to his forehead as he used to do.

  —Sam! Heather! Can either of you hear me? This is Dad.

  With a jolt, I realized I really could hear him. I strained to listen.

  —I'm trapped somewhere in the Underwood. It's possible I may never get out of here. Kids, first of all, do not come after me yourselves. It's too dangerous and I don't want you two to become lost down here as well.

  Dad paused, blinking, then continued.

  —You two will have to carry on the d'Espers family legacy. I'm sorry to have left you behind. I was foolish. Reckless Able, always blasting off on another ill-advised adventure.

  He paused again, gritting his teeth.

  —I guess I don't need to tell you that. Please remember, I love you both. Always be good to the spirits. Remember our spiritualists' duty to forge a connection. Never fear the strangeness of the paranormal.

  He bowed his head.

  —That's all. Good-bye, my children.

  Tears veiled my sight and I struggled to message him, to call out or to move from this waking dream. Nothing changed. Still I moved in the slough tree, sluggishly inching along, what direction I could not tell. Blackness soon blotted out the vision and I could see nothing more of him at all.

  Then . . . a black and white figure floated before me, reaching.

  "Oh no!" I heard him cry. "Aether, please come back!"

  Emmett! I tried to pronounce his name. Suspended in the slough tree, I could only watch as a horrified Emmett clawed and dug at the slough tree. He was here! Surely he could get me out!

  He reached out to me and I watched my pale, transparent arms slip through his grasp, as if I were the spirit and not he. His image faded away as I slid deeper into the slough tree. The sound of Emmett's cries ceased. Alone, I slumped motionless, deep inside the slough tree's murky substance. In my mind's eye, I saw a vision of him, also alone and distressed. He had partially dissolved into the hard ground of the cave and lay bereft among the stones.

  Chapter Ten

  A Zombie Curse

  The visions of Emmett continued, as I floated inside the immense space of the slough tree. I still couldn't move or respond, but at least I had retained some connection to him. I could feel the slow movement of the tree shifting me gradually, taking me All-knows-where. I readied myself for any chance to escape, but now I could only watch and wait.

  In my mind's eye, I saw a bonfire that burned high and wild in hues of sickly green and yellow. Around its perimeter, a cluster of strange Underwood beings gathered. I saw bent and twisted demons with taut muscles like red ropes and shadowy, floating shades with indistinct features. The mass of creatures huddled around the fire, warming themselves and speaking in low voices. In the deep blackness outside their camp, I glimpsed Emmett. He had partially merged with a boulder and was listening in on their conversation.

  "Who's there?" said a tall, dark shade with the appearance of a gauzy sheet floating by itself.

  "I didn't hear anything," said a short, dark shade that looked much like the first one.

  "Someone's there, all right," said a red demon. Quick as a whip, he pounced on the boulder where Emmett hid and yanked him out.

  Emmett's emanation wavered in and out like a watery reflection, but if he was trying to disappear, he failed.

  "Trying to get away, eh? Forget it," said the demon. "The Underwood drains away whatever abilities you had above. You'll slowly lose all your strength down here until you lapse into demon or shade form." The demon laughed, a harsh, mirthless cackle.

  Emmett rippled with a deep and airless sigh. His head slumped forward in desolation.

  The red demon removed a belt from his waist and knotted it around one of Emmett's arms. He lashed the other end around Emmett's throat. Emmett bent in sorrow and didn't resist. Tears stung my eyes, even in the slough tree. I wanted to shout at him to fight back, but I still couldn't make a sound. I tried to message him.

  —Emmett! Don't give up! I'm deep inside the slough tree, but I'm still here!

  I waited for an answer, but the Emmett in my vision wasn't in any position to respond. The red demon sprinted off with Emmett tied behind him, running and leaping. He traveled at an in
credible pace, pulling his captive after him. Emmett could only flap along behind.

  In what seemed like minutes, the demon and Emmett reached the terminus of the cavern. I viewed, through my vision, the cavern's enormous wall stretching upward into darkness. Against this wall leaned a many-storied, roughhewn temple. Its marble pillars were carved with dancing images of horned fiends and wafting shades. The red demon darted up the stairs to the temple's entrance between the marble pillars. He dragged Emmett into a spacious, echoing main chamber.

  "Master!" called the demon in a shrill, nasal voice. "I have brought you a light snack! You may roast him with the boy we caught earlier!"

  Roughly in the center of the chamber stood a large, chained creature with the head of a bull and a man's muscular body. The creature responded with a powerful snort. Then the creature breathed on a glowing ball which hung on a chain just out of reach. The voice of the bull-headed man issued forth and echoed through the hall and off an empty throne.

  "It is another weakened spirit power! Bring him to me!" bellowed the bull-man. "I will toast him over a flame, he is so insubstantial. Bring forth the boy we captured as well and stoke the fire."

  The red demon released Emmett before the empty throne. Then the demon sprang out of the main chamber. Emmett stood as if stunned, looking around the premises, until the demon returned. Behind him, the red demon dragged a small figure wrapped in burlap cloth and tied like a package of meat.

  The cloth fell back from the small figure's face, revealing Teddy's tawny hair and round, child's face. His bright eyes glared out at them.

  "Teddy," said Emmett in a choked voice.

  "If it isn't my dear brother," snarled Teddy. "My eternal thanks for tossing me into this pit. So nice of you to visit me before I am roasted." He struggled against his bonds. Unable to get free his arms, he spat viciously at Emmett and the red demon.

  The bull-headed creature chortled with delight. "So, it is you. The All and the Bellum! The two brother gods!"