From Light to Dark

by Irene L. Pynn

  “Let me in the passageway.”

  “I can’t,” he said. “They’re going to hurt you.”

  “You don’t have a say,” she said with a half-hearted smile. “It’s my decision.”

  Suddenly her face came close to his, her light breath on his lips. The closeness made him want to either laugh or cry. He was so overwhelmed with emotions that he couldn’t tell the difference.

  “I can’t do it, Caer,” Eref said. “I can’t say goodbye to you, too.”

  Caer’s smile grew as she came even closer. “I’m going with you,” she whispered, “so you don’t have to say goodbye.”

  They kissed. Her lips felt soft and cool, and her mouth was unbelievably sweet. Caer’s hand brushed his cheek and brought him closer. He reached up and took her hand in his. He didn’t want to ever let go.

  From their bodies, a gentle hint of light began to glow….

  “Are you guys coming?” Vul’s voice echoed through the root.

  Reluctantly, Eref watched Caer pull back and grin at him.

  “On our way!” she called.

  For a moment, Caer looked back at the jungle as if she were viewing it for the last time.

  “Dark World is such a beautiful place,” she said. “I wish the Liber Flowers had fallen early this year so you could have seen them.”

  Eref paused, remembering her story. He would have liked to sit in the falling flowers with Caer. “But that would mean something was wrong, wouldn’t it? We should be glad they aren’t falling.”

  She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “You’re right.”

  Eref helped her climb into the root. She wiggled past him toward Vul while Eref watched outside for the Exile. He was nowhere to be seen. Maybe the old man had been discovered by someone on the outskirts of town.

  “He said he’d be here after we’d gotten in safely,” Caer said as if she could read Eref’s mind. “He’s fine.”

  She smiled and sounded cheerful, but Eref noticed the tension in her eyes. This was it. They were heading into the heart of danger.

  “I remember where we are,” Vul whispered. “It’s this way.” She led them, crawling on their hands and knees, deeper and deeper in.

  Eref gripped the Moonstone ring in his hand, rubbing his thumb across it every few minutes to reassure himself it was there.

  Though it comforted him to be with Caer, he couldn’t help but feel guilty that she had followed. If he’d been a little braver, he could have just told her goodbye in the jungle and left her with the Exile. At least then she would have been safe.

  But he understood her point. Friends had to stick together. He couldn’t have left her to do this task by herself any more than she could leave him.

  “This way,” Vul called back much later, leading them through the twisting roots. “The trunk is up here.”

  “The trunk?” Suddenly he found he didn’t feel ready. “You mean we’re already at the Shade?”

  “Yep,” Vul said. “I don’t remember how we got there, though. I was still knocked out until we were out of the trunk. So once we’re inside I can’t lead anymore.”

  “Right,” Caer said. She glanced around nervously, and Eref guessed she was worried about the Exile. For all of his physical weakness, they had come to depend on his experience to get them through. Would they really have to do this on their own?

  Two hours ago, Eref had been ready to go it alone. Now he felt more like part of a team. Except the most knowledgeable teammate was missing.

  Higher and higher they climbed, until they reached another opening. Vul wriggled out, followed by Caer. Then Eref squeezed through. He stood, legs aching, and stretched his back.

  “What is this place?” Caer leaned back, craning her neck to see upward.

  “The trunk of the Shade,” Vul said.

  Eref adjusted his glasses and glanced around. It was amazing. Hundreds of stairs spiraled up, with countless doors on the way. “Where do they lead?” He gestured at the first few doors nearby.

  “No idea,” said Vul. “I think we came out of one of them, but I’d been drugged. Trumpet Pollen, I think. I didn’t wake up until we were just out of the trunk.”

  Beneath them, Eref noticed a trail of blood and large footprints. A Light Person’s foot. His heart sank again. Balor had stood here just a few hours ago.

  Caer touched his shoulder and smiled, still with a look of sadness in her eyes. “Vul’s right, you know,” she said. “It would be wrong to go home now. After what Balor did. He believed in us.”

  Eref nodded and took a deep breath. “You sure you don’t want to turn around? I’d understand.”

  She shook her head. “Thanks, but no. Whatever you have to do, we’re going to help.”

  “Without you guys, I’d be one of their robots by now,” Vul said and winked. “There’s no way I’m missing a fight with these stinking—”

  “Vul,” Caer said. “We want to get through unnoticed if we can.”

  “Yeah, but just in case. What if there’s a fight and I miss it? I can’t tell you how good it would feel to put a fist right through one of their ugly noses.” She cracked her knuckles and grinned.

  Eref laughed in spite of the situation. He could imagine petite Vul attacking a guard, too. The guard would regret messing with her.

  “Well,” he said. “Should we go up? I guess we’ll have to figure out which door leads to the Governors.”

  Balor’s blood trailed the stairs all the way to the top, but that was probably where the Eighteener Entrance was held. They didn’t need to go there. They would have to look at their options.

  They examined each door they passed. Various strange carvings depicted scenes with Light, Dark, and Safe people, but nothing gave them a clue.

  Eref didn’t want to chance opening one without feeling certain about it first. Like Caer said, they needed to get through as quietly as possible.

  Vul hiked behind them and occasionally whispered questions for more information about their mission. “When we do find the right door, what’s the plan, anyway?”

  “We have to find the maze of riddles,” said Eref.

  “What’s that?”

  “I don’t know. But I’m guessing each of these doors leads into a different room in the Shade. So hopefully the riddle maze is through one of the doors. That’s all I have to go on, at least.”

  Vul huffed. “Feels like a riddle already,” she said. “What do these carvings mean, anyway?”

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  “Then how will we find it?” Caer had started to look more nervous the higher up they went.

  “Maybe it’ll say Riddle Maze, Enter Here at the top,” Vul said.

  Eref smiled. “I wish.”

  “So let’s say we find the maze,” Vul said. “What then?”

  “Then we get through the puzzles to reach the Governors.”

  “And then?”

  “Then I have to protect the Moonstone.” He stopped climbing the stairs and held out his hand to show Vul the ring.

  She stared with wide eyes. “That’s the Moonstone,” she whispered.

  “Yes.”

  “And the old man stole it?”

  “Yes.”

  “So that you could come back here and use it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  Eref put his hand in his pants pocket and thumbed the gem again. It felt cool against his hand. “Because the magic in the Moonstone will mix with mine if we’re together long enough in danger. The ring will be in the most danger when I’m in the Governors’ presence, because they will want to use its power, too. So I have to protect it. Then the light will come. And that will bring Light World and Dark World together again.”

  Vul gaped at Eref and Caer. “Really? We’re not going to fight them to the death or anything?”

  “I hope not,” he said.

  “Vul,” Caer said. “Remember that story our nanny told us in the Gestator? About the Safety?”

  V
ul’s eyes widened. “That’s what Light and Dark World are when you bring them together!”

  Eref nodded.

  “Hm,” Vul said, sounding a little disappointed. “I knew you needed to get back in here, but I thought it was going to be more exciting than that.”

  “What would you rather?” Caer looked irritated. “Don’t you realize what’s going to happen to Eref when he does that? He’s going to become the Safety. He’s going to…to disappear. To die.”

  Caer’s words made Eref cringe. It was so surreal. In just a little while, his life would be over.

  Vul fidgeted. She clearly hadn’t focused on that part. When Eref had explained it, she had still been in shock. “Oh. Well, I’m just saying they deserve a good kick in the teeth before anything like that happens.”

  He smiled. It was good to have friends with him.

  They started back up the stairs, checking each door for a clue.

  “Hey, Eref,” Vul said a minute later.

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m sorry I said I’d kill you.”

  “What?”

  “In the tree. You know, before I fell. I was just freaked out.”

  Caer turned to face Vul, looking surprised.

  “Anyway,” Vul said. “What I mean is, you didn’t deserve that. You and your friend Balor. You’re good people.”

  “It’s all right,” he said. “You don’t need to apologize. I’m sorry about what happened to you.”

  The beige in her cheeks turned pink. “No problem.” She cleared her throat and looked up at a huge door. “Hey—maybe this is it.”

  “Yes,” said Caer. “There’s no handle.”

  “Is that some kind of riddle?” Vul leaned up against it, already trying to find a trick to getting in.

  The carving on this particular door was extremely elaborate. Colors of all kinds swirled around the images like a celebration. In the picture, two very elderly Safe men and three Safe women stood together with their arms crossed.

  These had to be the Governors.

  A skinny woman in the middle wore the bright blue Moonstone on her hand. Her fierce eyes glared at Eref, daring him to open the door.

  “What do you think?” Caer turned to him with a quizzical glance.

  “I think Vul’s right,” he said. “These people in the picture are probably the Governors. And it looks like there’s a trick to getting in.”

  Caer scrunched up her nose at the image on the door. “The Governors aren’t Dark People?”

  Vul stepped back and considered the picture, too. “That’s weird,” she said. “I’ve never thought about what they looked like.”

  “Me either,” said Eref. “But it makes sense they would be Safe People instead of Light or Dark People. They come from the Safety, after all.”

  “Bizarre,” Vul said. “I wonder if anyone’s really seen them before.”

  “Probably,” Caer said. “But I’ll bet it’s been hundreds of years. Probably no one’s seen them since they lived in the Safety.”

  “The Exile has,” Eref pointed out. “He sees them every month to transfer life from the Moonstone. And he takes them through the cave from Light World to Dark World.”

  “I wonder why they go back and forth like that,” Vul said, pushing on the door with her palms.

  “I think they can’t take too much life from one world at a time,” Eref said. “The Exile told me it was a really difficult process. It takes all the power he has left to do it.”

  Caer frowned at the faces of the Governors. “What makes them so much more important than the rest of us?”

  “Nothing,” Vul said, pounding her shoulder into the door. “Let’s break in and show them we mean business.”

  “I don’t think that’s the way, Vul,” Eref said, pulling her back. “Anyway, let’s not make too much noise.”

  Scowling, Vul retreated. “Just let me in there. I have a few things I’d like to talk to them about.” She punched her fist into her palm.

  Eref rubbed his fingers across the Moonstone in his pocket. What could get them through this door with no knob?

  He examined the picture. Each elderly Governor stood straight as a post. They wore long robes over their dresses and tunics, and each Governor’s silver hair cascaded down skeletal gray shoulders.

  The thin woman in the middle, the one with the Moonstone ring, wore an expression that seemed to laugh at Eref. I have all the power, it said. You have nothing.

  She made him angry, this skinny one. Something about her stood out from the rest. It seemed she wanted everyone to bow down to her power. Even the other Governors looked subordinate to the woman who bore the Moonstone.

  Eref wanted to get closer for a better look at the picture. He bent onto his knees and leaned in until he was eye-level with the woman’s ring finger.

  It began to glow bright blue.

  He bounded backward. “Did you see that?”

  “Yes!” Caer said. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know!”

  Vul scowled again and said, “I thought you were going to kiss the damn thing. That ugly lady’s hand. What are you doing down there?”

  Eref turned up to face Vul. “That might be it,” he said.

  “What?”

  He looked back at the ring. Its color had returned to normal. He glanced up at the thin lady’s face. She was the greediest of them all. No other Governor’s expression looked quite so desperate for power and recognition.

  “Here goes,” Eref said and leaned into the ring again. The bright blue light glowed, shining into his dark-vision glasses.

  He bowed his head and kissed the ring.

  “Gross,” Vul said.

  “No, look,” Caer added.

  The door creaked open.

  “You did it!” Caer kneeled down and hugged Eref.

  He smiled at her for a moment but then noticed the blackness beyond the door. A draft of cold air rushed around them, rustling through their clothes. Eref shivered.

  They were going inside.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Riddle Maze

  “What’s in there?”

  “Looks like a boat,” Vul said.

  Eref adjusted his glasses and stood up with Caer to walk through the door. They took hesitant steps; every few inches, the air grew colder and the room grew darker.

  Vul was right. A few feet ahead of them, a boat rocked on some kind of water.

  Once they crossed the threshold into the new room, the door slammed shut behind them. All three whirled around to look at the black wall that would have provided their way out.

  “We have to go forward,” Caer whispered. “It’s shut us in.” Her voice echoed all around them. She shivered, and Eref pulled her closer.

  Together, the three of them walked toward the rocking boat. A scent of something like flowers or candy wafted their way.

  As they neared the boat, they found three cages next to a crystal-clear pool that sparkled like the dew on the flowers of Dark World. It was like no other water Eref had ever seen, and, by the looks on their faces, it surprised Vul and Caer as well.

  The water didn’t move like normal, thin liquid. It appeared thicker and more solid, moving as one huge mass of clear jelly.

  And it smelled incredible. As he approached, something coming from the pool gave off the most enticing aroma he’d ever come across in his life. It almost begged him to wade in….

  “Woah,” Vul said, pointing at the slowly swaying boat. “Look.”

  The bottom of the wooden boat was covered in something that seemed waxy and brown, almost like candy itself. But that wasn’t what Vul had noticed. She pointed at what was happening to the waxy substance.

  The water rose and fell, lapping the sides of the boat, and little bits of steam rose from the wax. The wax gradually melted off into the pool, giving off a tiny hissing sound.

  This wasn’t water.

  This was a pool of acid.

  “What are we supposed to do?” Eref st
ared at the beautiful acidic pool with the strange wooden boat and the cages nearby.

  Each cage contained a different animal. One was a sickly, snarling fire dog, its sharp teeth bared. Another was a Dark World beast with long arms and fingers that gripped the bars of the cage; it looked quizzically out at them and flicked its thin tail. The last cage contained what Eref assumed had to be an overweight tinghept.

  The keys to each cage lay on the ground just in front of their doors.

  “Look at this,” Caer said, bending down.

  “Be careful,” Vul said. “Don’t touch the water.”

  Gingerly, Caer reached out and pulled a small metal sheet from the edge of the pool. She turned to Eref. “It has instructions.”

  An eerie feeling crept through his stomach. “What does it say?”

  Caer squinted. The writing must have been tiny, because it took her a moment to read. She cleared her throat and began.

  “Automated message 7304293401-512457821-1. Puzzle 2 for Exile’s life-transfer duties, month 11868. Items: One fire dog—starving; one eokmyn—starving; one tinghept—fed. Items may not be transported inside cages. All items must be alive at the other side and returned to cages there once the task is over. Only one item may be in the boat during each crossing. Total time to cross acid river one way: 30 seconds. Total time boat can last in acid from puzzle start:…”

  Caer stopped.

  Eref’s mind raced. “What does it say?”

  She shook her head. “I can’t read it out loud.”

  “Why not?” Vul took a step forward and leaned in to read the writing.

  “No, Vul,” Caer said. “Don’t say it.” She handed the metal sheet to Eref, who adjusted his glasses again.

  Vul peeked from around his shoulder.

  At first, he found the miniscule writing was impossible to make out. But Eref continued to stare, and letters eventually popped out one by one. Within seconds, the final sentence was clear:

  Total time boat can last in acid from puzzle start: SAY “BEGIN” FOR TIME.

  “We’re dead,” Vul said.

  “No,” Eref said. “We have to get through this.”

  “What if we do? There’s probably a harder puzzle after this!” Vul’s voice bounced off the walls of the room and sounded across the pool of acid.