by J. M. Lee
She struck. Her blade rippled white with the Waystar’s light—
Then blue, through iridescent Sifa wings.
Sparks flew from metal clashing, and skekSa cursed, then screamed as the tip of a Vapra sword sliced her claws, flipping her deadly sword out of her grasp and this time sending it over the cliff and plummeting to the sea below.
“NO!”
Amri tried to move again. The world still swung below him; his ears still rang. His eyes were still hazy, trying desperately to focus. But even so, he could see who stood between them and skekSa: a Sifa with hair gold as the sun, holding Tavra’s sword. Shining on her neck was a crystal spider, silver and blue as the moon.
The ringing dulled enough that Amri could hear Tavra’s words, stern and commanding in Tae’s voice.
“Get out of here, to the cliff,” she said. “Run! Fly!”
“Out of my way!”
skekSa lunged for Naia, but was blocked by the ruthless blade in Tae’s hand. Not even skekSa’s three remaining hands could catch her as she leaped to the air, flitting and diving and spinning like a flurry of snow in the wind.
Naia hoisted Amri’s arm over her shoulder, and he willed his feet to move. Willed himself to look away, to trust that Tavra had the skills and that Tae’s body had the strength to fight skekSa. By the time Naia got him to the cliff, Amri could control his feet again. Kylan was waiting where Tae had fallen. Amri shoved Naia at him when the air shook with skekSa’s frustrated roar.
“Tavra and Tae can’t hold her off forever!” he told Naia. “Take Kylan and go!”
Naia nodded. She grabbed Kylan and leaped just as skekSa and Tae erupted from the grove. The Mariner thrashed at the Sifa with a tree branch, trying to strike her down like an annoying bug.
But Tae was too quick. She swept back on the wind, well ahead of skekSa and alighting beside Amri.
“Quickly,” Tae said. “Hold on!”
But he knew it wasn’t Tae. Not really. It was Tavra who spoke to him as she slipped her arm around his waist. Tavra, using the power of the crystal-singer to move Tae’s body. The way she’d moved Amri’s, back in the Crystal Sea. Amri had seen what had happened to Tae when she’d been struck by skekSa’s explosive device. She’d been unconscious—unmoving. It was only Tavra that was keeping her in motion right now.
skekSa lunged for them, snatching, but she was too late. Amri held on as Tavra spread Tae’s wings and leaped off the cliff, flying toward the lantern on Onica’s ship.
The fall was like leaping into space. Though Amri didn’t remember the ocean being warm, he could feel the temperature rise as they dropped, melting the frost from Tavra’s wings. No—they were Tae’s wings, weren’t they? Amri’s mind spun. He didn’t know anymore.
Morning was coming, sunlight creeping across the horizon in the distance and slowly melting the cold of night from the capped waves of the Silver Sea. Above them, skekSa’s curses turned into screams. They’d escaped.
“You saved us,” he said.
“I’m trying.” He glanced into Tae’s face, and he saw Tavra looking back at him. It was eerie, and heartbreaking. “The others are up ahead. Reach out and grab them. I don’t think Naia will be able to make the landing.”
Naia’s black wings were half-spread, slowing her descent but not flight-worthy enough to break their fall. Tavra understood the currents here, bringing them close enough that Amri could take hold of Naia’s hand. When he had her, the five of them rode the snowy current the rest of the way down.
As soon as their feet touched the deck of Onica’s ship, Tae collapsed. Amri grabbed her by the waist and lowered her as Naia scrambled to her side, spreading her hands and bathing her in blue light. Onica leaped from the mast where she’d been waiting, eyes filled with tears.
“What happened? Is she all right?” she asked. “Tae!”
Naia’s expression was grim but not hopeless. She stopped healing Tae long enough to say, “She’s hurt badly, but I think I can save her. Let’s get her inside, where it’s warm. Quickly!”
In the cabin, surrounded by candles and the scent of herbs, Amri sat by Naia’s side as she focused. The power of the Drenchen girl’s vliyaya was strong, almost tangible in the air like a scent of water and life. Washing away the bruises and cuts, mending the broken bones and cracked wing Tae had sustained in her vicious battle with skekSa.
In the end, the glowing eased and Naia put her hand on Tae’s forehead.
“I’ve healed her body,” she said, brow creased with pain. “But she was deeply injured by that explosion. Even though I’ve mended her cuts and broken bones, her mind still sleeps. I cannot even sense her dreams. I don’t know when she will wake . . . if ever.”
It was hard to imagine. The Sifa merely looked as if she were sleeping.
“I didn’t mean to . . . ,” Tavra began. She rested on Tae’s cheek, glistening like a tiny moon in a cloud of sun-gold hair. Amri sighed and shook his head. The moon had eclipsed the sun during a storm in Ha’rar, after all.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “You brought her body back here so Naia could heal her. You saved us all, and you couldn’t have without her. That’s what she would have wanted. When she wakes up, I’m sure that’s what she’ll say.”
The air reverberated with the sound of a metallic whistle. Amri pressed his hands over his ears as it rang through the chill air. He knew that sound. And with a dread knot in his gut, he knew what would come next.
Amri ran out onto the deck, followed by the others. The ship trembled as the sea shook. He grabbed hold of the rigging on the ship as waves rolled out from the ocean and crashed across the back of an enormous black shell. A deafening moan trembled through the water and echoed against the steep cliff. Terror shot through Amri’s body as a behemoth mouth rose from the depths, water gushing from its enormous hooked-beaked maw.
It gaped, spreading its jaws. The ocean churned, sucked into the black abyss of the creature’s throat. Onica’s ship was caught in a vortex of inescapable currents, and Amri watched the slowly brightening sky disappear as the monster ship closed its jaws, swallowing them into a sea of darkness.
CHAPTER 26
Amri woke with his cheek against a hard, wet surface and a bitter taste in his mouth and filling his nose. He sat up in the dim light. The room was small and without windows, doors, or corners, like a bubble made of ligaments and muscles that had gone stiff with disuse. Of course there was a dungeon in the belly of skekSa’s monster ship.
“Take it easy.”
Over the pounding in his head, he hadn’t even realized he wasn’t alone. Tae sat beside him, her calm hand resting on his shoulder as he groaned. From the cautious, stern look in her eye, he knew that it wasn’t really Tae. Not yet. The spider hiding in her hair glimmered.
“Tavra,” he said.
“It seems I must protect Tae’s body a bit longer,” she replied.
He sat up. Kylan sat beside him, Onica kneeling at Tavra’s side. They looked relieved to see he was awake, but none of them were in a position to be happy about anything. They were in a cell, albeit a strange one. Captives, despite the fight they’d put up and the casualties they’d taken. Amri tried not to dwell on it.
“What happened? How long was I out?”
“We don’t know,” Kylan said. “But I don’t think very long.”
Amri bolted upright, realizing one of them was missing.
“Where’s Naia?”
“Escaped,” Tavra replied. “Which is what we must do, as soon as we are able.”
She was right. Amri stood. Fighting the throbbing in his head, he pressed his hands against the sticky, pulsating walls to no avail. Arteries of slow-moving blood branched and tangled between the bulging contours of the wall. When Amri pushed his ear against the wall, all he could hear was that pulse, moving slow as the earth, and a deep, pained rushing sound t
hat was so intermittent, he almost didn’t realize it was the behemoth ship’s breath.
“I wonder if skekSa ever truly meant to help the Sifa,” Kylan said as he inspected the closed valve in the wall. Amri joined him, but it felt pointless. It was the doorway, but they had no means of opening it without skekSa and her awful whistle. As much as things might have changed—as much as Tavra wanted to talk about escaping—they were trapped.
“Skeksis alliances shift like the tide,” Onica murmured. “Perhaps she did. But now we’ve lit three of seven fires. The Gelfling alliance rises. This changes things for the Skeksis, too.”
Amri jumped when a dreadful, familiar voice purred through the membrane:
“Not for long.”
Amri and Kylan jumped as the wall opened like a mouth. Lord skekSa stood in the corridor beyond. Her severed arm was wrapped in blackening gauze, countenance hardened and threatening. Amri backed away, wondering if she had come to kill them, after all they’d done.
Tavra and Onica rose at his shoulders, Kylan remaining at his side. He wasn’t alone. He remembered Naia’s bravery in the face of the Skeksis, and dug in his heels. He wouldn’t be afraid, not even when facing a creature so fearful.
“Where are you taking us?”
skekSa sniffed, as if the question had a disgusting odor.
“Somewhere nicer than this dungeon. But don’t be fooled. I’m still very cross with you.”
She stepped aside, flourishing with her stump. Reminding them what they’d done to her and that she was not about to forget it. Her gesture was toward a tunnel that led into the cavernous labyrinth of her ship, where they were at her mercy.
“Come along, then,” she snarled. “Little heroes.”
Despite her tone, Amri smiled.
Heroes.
Though they were surrounded by darkness, the word lit the image of torches in his mind’s eye. Naia was out there, somewhere, bearing her light. She would not give up on them. Neither would Tavra and Onica and Kylan, at his back. They would protect him as he would protect them—with his life. Not as song tellers or Far-Dreamers or soldiers. Not as daylighters, Spriton or Vapra or Grottan, but as Gelfling.
Having no other choice, Amri and his friends followed skekSa down the snaking passageway. But Amri held his head high. He would not be defeated. Until the day that he could no longer, he would resist. The flames within his heart blazed, and not even the shadows of the Skeksis could drown its light.
GLOSSARY
Arathim: A race of ancient arthropods, including crystal-singers and silk-spitters. Their color and shape varies widely from family to family, with number of legs ranging from three to twelve.
armalig: This slow-thinking but fast-moving creature is motivated by food and so easily tamed. Often used by the Skeksis for pulling their carriages.
bell-bird: An ancient, extinct bird whose bones and beaks are said to resonate with Thra’s song.
bola: A Y-shaped length of knotted rope with stones tied to each of the three ends. Used as a weapon, the bola can be swung or thrown, enabling the wielder to ensnare prey.
Crystal Skimmer: These large, flippered creatures are very social and travel in pods. They are native to the Crystal Sea. Easily trained by Gelfling, these majestic beasts are used by the Dousan clan to cross large expanses of the desert.
daeydoim: Six-legged desert-dwelling creatures with large dorsal scales and broad hooves. Frequently domesticated by desert nomads.
firca: A Y-shaped Gelfling wind instrument, played with both hands. It was Gyr the Song Teller’s legendary instrument of choice.
fizzgig: A small furry carnivore native to the Dark Wood. Sometimes kept as a pet.
Grot: A cavern deep in the eastern mountains, the home of the mysterious Grottan Gelfling clan.
hooyim: One of the many colorful leaping fish species that migrate in large schools along the northern Sifan coasts. Often called the jewels of the sea.
Landstrider: Long-legged hooved beasts common to the Spriton plains.
maudra: Literally “mother.” The matriarch and wise woman of a Gelfling clan.
maudren: Literally “those of the mother.” The family of a Gelfling maudra.
merkeep: A delicious tuber. It is a traditional food of the Stonewood Gelfling.
muski: Flying quilled eels endemic to the Swamp of Sog. Babies are very small, but adults never stop growing. The oldest known muski was said to be as wide as the Black River.
ninet: One of nine orbital seasons caused by the configuration of the three suns. Arcs in which Thra is farthest from the suns are winter ninets; arcs in which Thra is nearest are summer ninets. Each ninet lasts approximately one hundred trine.
swoothu: Flying beetlefur creatures with strange sleeping patterns. Many act as couriers for the Gelfling clans in exchange for food and shelter.
ta: A hot beverage made by mixing boiling water and spices.
Three Brothers: Thra’s three suns: the Great Sun, the Rose Sun, and the Dying Sun.
Three Sisters: Thra’s three moons: the Blue Moon, the Pearl Moon, and the Hidden Moon.
trine: The orbital period of Thra moving around the Great Sun, roughly equivalent to an Earth year.
unamoth: A large-winged pearly white insect that sheds its skin once every unum.
unum: The time for Thra’s largest moon to circle Thra once, roughly equivalent to an Earth month.
vliya: Literally “blue fire.” Gelfling life essence.
vliyaya: Literally “flame of the blue fire.” Gelfling mystic arts.
xeric: One of twelve Dousan nomadic groups, each led by a designated sandmaster.
zandir: A flower native to the wetlands near Cera-Na. Its pollen can cause the lowering of inhibitions and talkativeness, so it is often used in truth-telling potions.
APPENDIX A
THE GELFLING CLANS
VAPRA
Sigil animal: Unamoth
Maudra: Mayrin, the All-Maudra
The Vapra clan was an industrious race with white hair, fair skin, and gossamer-winged women. Considered the oldest of the Gelfling clans, the Vapra reside in cliffside villages along the northern coasts, making their capital in Ha’rar. Chosen by the Skeksis, the Vapra’s maudra, Mayrin, doubled as All-Maudra, matriarch leader of all the Gelfling clans. Vapra were skilled at camouflage; their vliyaya focuses on light-changing magic, allowing them to become nearly invisible.
STONEWOOD
Sigil animal: Fizzgig
Maudra: Fara, the Rock Singer
This clan was a proud and ancient people who dwelled on the fertile lands near and within the Dark Wood. They made their main home in Stone-in-the-Wood, the historical home of Jarra-Jen. Many Stonewood Gelfling were valuable guards at the Castle of the Crystal. They were farmers and cobblers and makers of tools. They were inventive, but pastoral; like their sigil animal, they were peaceful but fierce when threatened.
SPRITON
Sigil animal: Landstrider
Maudra: Mera, the Dream Stitcher
Age-old rivals of the Stonewood clan, the Spritons were a warrior race inhabiting the rolling fields south of the Dark Wood. With such bountiful land to raise crops and family, this clan’s territory spread to cover the valley in several villages. Counted among the most fierce fighters of the Gelfling race, the Spriton were often called upon to serve as soldiers for the Skeksis Lords and guards at the Castle of the Crystal.
SIFA
Sigil animal: Hooyim
Maudra: Gem-Eyed Ethri
Found in coastal villages along the Silver Sea, the Sifa were skilled fishermen and sailors, but very superstitious. Explorers by nature, the Sifa were competent in battle—but they truly excelled at survival. Sifan vliyaya focused Gelfling luck magic into inanimate objects; Sifan charms enchanted with different spells were highly desired by travelers, craftsmen, and
warriors of all clans.
DOUSAN
Sigil animal: Daeydoim
Maudra: Seethi, the Skin Painter
This clan made their settlements on sandships—amazing constructs of bone and crystal that navigated the Crystal Sea like ocean vessels. Resilient even within the arid climate of the desert, the Dousan thrived. Their culture was shrouded and unsettlingly quiet, their language made of whispers and gestures, their life stories told in the intricate magic tattoos painting their bodies.
DRENCHEN
Sigil animal: Muski
Maudra: Laesid, the Blue Stone Healer
The Drenchen clan was a race of amphibious Gelfling who lived in the overgrown Swamp of Sog, deep in the southernmost reaches of the Skarith region. Sturdier and taller than the rest of their race, the Drenchen were powerful in combat, but generally preferred to keep to themselves. Though one of the smallest Gelfling clans, the Drenchen had the largest sense of clan pride; they were loyal to one another, but remained as distant from other clans as possible.
GROTTAN
Sigil animal: Hollerbat
Maudra: Argot, the Shadow Bender
A mysterious, secretive breed who dwelled in perpetual darkness in the Caves of Grot. Generations in the shadows left them with an extreme sensitivity to light—and solid black eyes that could see in the dark and large ears to make out even the faintest of echoes. The Grottan clan was said to number less than three dozen Gelfling, and their life span was said to be unheard of, lasting three to four times as long as other Gelfling.
APPENDIX B
LOCATIONS OF THRA
Black River: The main waterway within the Skarith Basin. It flows from high in the Grottan Mountains north to Ha’rar, where it empties into the Silver Sea.
