by Abby Dewsnup
He nodded. “It’s easier to disappear in—”
“— The central cave,” I finished. “There are more people there, less likely a patrolman will rat you out to the Elders. Easier to bribe them, too.”
He grinned. “Exactly.”
I sighed, following his gaze to the dripping rag in his hands. “You know Jay, for a few years after my parents left I was stringing up my bag in that wretched skeleton home as James told me that our parents were coming home someday. For a long while, I believed him, because he was a little boy who held onto hope. I didn’t dare take that from him. But what’s important is that every night I thought I could see them in the darkness.” I took a deep breath, facing him. “Don’t you wonder if your parents are waiting for you, as I waited for mine?”
Jay shook his head. “I’m not a good person, Anya. It’s better that I stay away from them.”
“You left your home to find a cure for your people all on the hope that your brother is alive. If there is anything you are, it’s good.”
He shook his head again, messing up his grime-covered hair. “I didn’t want to starve in those skeleton homes another night. That’s why I followed the horse rider. You know, I saw you a few times in the Caves. You were really good at blending in, with your tan scarves and covered hands. But you weren’t invisible.” He smiled despite himself, shifting his gaze over to me. “You think you’re so tough, Anya. But I saw the way you gave your light to those who needed it. I saw you.”
I looked away, studying my tanned hands. “I’m sorry that I didn’t see you. I guess I was too focused on James.” A thought occurred to me, and I asked, “How did you survive, if the shaft flooded? How did they pull you out?”
The Captain interrupted our conversation. A crate was in her hands, bursting with rusted metal parts. “All patched up then, Cave?”
“Cave? Is that his nickname?”
“Yeah, well enough. It’ll stop the infection,” Jay replied, cutting me off. “This is Anya, and I’m Jay.”
She nodded, her red bangs falling across hardened eyes. “I’m the Captain of this ship, and you can call me such. You’ll have to stop using that shoulder, Anya, especially after the run in you had with our coasters.”
“You’re welcome,” I said dryly.
“We don’t have enough room for all four of you below deck, so we’ll set up a cot for the ladies on the starboard and you can sleep with the other men below, Jay. For now, rest. We’ll put you to work come tomorrow.”
She pulled a rusted box from her crate. It was covered in knobs and dials, with three wires protruding from the top. “This is a Windwalker radio we smuggled in just east of here. It’s completely useless, but maybe you can get it up and working again for the sake of entertainment.”
Jay took it from her, examining it with false disinterest. “Thanks,” he said. “Where’s Roland and Lynx?”
The Captain’s expression soured. “Roland is already trying to establish his escape from our boat, and I suspect your friend Lynx is below deck.”
“Is there a means of escape?” Jay asked.
She glared at him. “We have our means, of course. But our passage is yet uncharted. We rescued you, so it’s our duty to drop you off the closest we can get to your destination. However, Roland tells me you haven’t any idea where to go.”
“Not yet,” I admitted. “We need to speak to him about that, actually.”
The Captain shrugged, an odd action with an overflowing crate in her hands. “You’d be lucky to get sense out of him before tomorrow. He’s throwing another one of his fits, you see, claiming he has a target on the East Bench and needs a way to get there. We told him you three are a top priority, and that we have his track record and he hasn’t met with any clients for months besides Kincho, but he won’t listen. He’ll be more agreeable in the morning.”
I nodded. “We’ll meet with him later. He isn’t exactly the most agreeable person to begin with, anyway.”
As the Captain walked away with her overflowing crate, Jay set the gifted radio on the wooden rail. “Anyway, what were you saying?”
I didn’t ask him my question again, knowing that I had pried too far into his life for one evening. “It doesn’t matter. What does it take to get a good meal around here?”
Later that night, after having scavenged for a sad excuse for dinner and a swig of water, I laid on my cot above quarters. The sun was setting, displaying the universe above. Below, as expected, the Coppice jungles began to glow as bright as the stars in the sky. Lynx’s cot was on the opposite side of the ship, but it lay vacant, and I wondered where she had chosen to stay for the night.
I slipped from my cot and crossed the deck to the crowsnest. The Captain didn’t seem to notice as I scaled the mast with my good arm, climbing into the small nest above.
I had never seen such a view. Jungles sprawled below our ship, pulsing with light and shifting constantly, as if the trees were breathing with life. I sighed and slid against the wall to the ground, pulling my knees close to my chest. The world was quiet here, in the sky. Trouble only lingered on the ground.
“Can I join you?” a voice interrupted my thoughts.
I gazed up at Jay and nodded, scooting over an inch so he could clamber inside. Dark circles rimmed his eyes, and his hair was messy and disheveled.
He had the radio in his hands, and I watched as he turned the knob, filling the air with static. At first, the music was quiet, and I had to strain my ears to hear it.
“It only plays one song,” he said. “Something about emerald in the sky, and some guy is trying to find it.”
I leveled my gaze with his. “And does he find it?”
Jay thought for a moment, tipping his head back to stare back at the stars. “I dunno, I’ve never finished the song. I was waiting to show you.”
The music droned on, a deep voice spilling from the radio and into the night. Jay hummed along with the tune.
Do you see, see the emerald green?
The man doesn’t find the emerald, I thought to myself. The singer is saying he wasted his time chasing after things in the sky. I was reminded of my parents, who left their children behind to pursue some fanatical dream above ground. Maybe I was doing the same thing, pursuing my little brother all on the word of the Elders of whom I had never trusted before now.
Maybe we are all chasing dreams in the night, I thought as I looked over at Jay.
There was silence. “Now that,” Jay said, his eyes cast on the universe above. “That is the biggest mirror I’ve ever seen.”
I followed his gaze to the stars. I wanted to ask him what he meant, but something in his voice was so certain, so filled with wonder. Pinpricks of light dared to interrupt the darkness, like fiery warriors against the universe. In some twisted way, his words made sense. “A giant reflection,” I agreed.
Jay nodded, content with himself. The scars the Elders had given him were angry against his skin, glaring red in the darkness. I didn’t try to decipher them. The world was at peace — the night pressing on despite the Stygian, despite our quest. The sun would rise again, I knew. But for now, we were safe.
I leaned against the wood of the Crowsnest. “The biggest mirror I’ve ever seen,” I whispered into the night.
Below us, deep within the jungle, a thousand eyes upturned to the sky. The Stygian gazed not at the stars, but at the ship that dared sail them, their mouths greedy for blood, their hands curled around shadowed entities of ash and smoke.
9
Centuries Deep
“Stand up straighter.” Her voice was harsh, indignant. It sent a flash of anger through me at the very sound.
The staff that the Night Rider had given me was in my hand, only it was off-set, imbalanced. I understood that much. And after the third hour of lessons from the ship Captain on bo staffs, I also understood how irritating a person could become.
She smacked the staff across my knuckles once more, her lips stretched in a thin line. “Your wounded s
houlder is no excuse for poor form, Anya. The greatest bo staff masters are able to control it with a single finger.”
“I don’t think that’s possible,” I gasped out.
“Propria manu,” she muttered. “It is only with focus that I can guide you.”
Jay leaned against the wood rail, his face freshly shaven and his ragged clothes replaced with a new crew shirt and pants. The Captain had even given him a pair of boots and replenished our packs, all in the name of favors for Kincho.
I was beginning to grow wary. Kincho dealt his hand in a lot of favors, and it didn’t seem right that he would waste a precious opportunity with the Skysailors on a ragtag team of travelers.
I had replaced my Cave-Dweller clothes for a white button-up shirt and tan pants like Jay’s, along with a holster for a dagger and a strap that held the staff to my back. At the time I had been grateful, but now I wished I hadn’t accepted the staff lessons from the Captain. Her training techniques were closer to a cruel and unusual punishment than lessons.
Jay chuckled, his arms crossed. “So when are you lot going to fight?”
The Captain spun around and met her staff with Jay’s outstretched sword, the wood smacking against the metal with a satisfying splintering sound. “Would you like to fight then, Cave?”
“Fight you?” Jay pulled his sword away, leveling his gaze with hers. “I’ll leave that to Roland.”
The Captain’s face soured, her eyes reflecting how thin the ice was that Jay was treading on. “I knew Roland once, if that is what you are getting at. But I don’t have time to reflect on my life, as I’m currently running an entire crew and attempting to teach the an incompetent student to master the staff.”
Jay’s expression twitched. “Anya is more competent than your entire ship, Captain. It wasn’t you who put an end to the raving spirit that has threatened Coppice for years.”
The Captain stepped towards him, her voice low as she said, “It wasn’t you, either.” She pushed past him and vanished down the starboard.
I lowered my staff, wiping sweat from my forehead. “Nice one, Jay. I guess you argue with everyone, not just me.”
He shook his head. “She’s a monster. It’s no wonder Roland hasn’t shown his face since last night. Speaking of such, we need to go talk to him and figure out a destination.”
“Do you think Lynx is down there? I haven’t seen her face, either,” I commented. “She’s too scared to come on the deck.”
We opened the door that the Captain had disappeared behind, revealing a hallway with dozens of doors. Jay opened the furthest door on the right, which led to the crew’s quarters where ragged hammocks swung from the ceiling rigging.
The smell hit me first, a mixture of sweat and rust that caused my nose to wrinkle in disgust. “No wonder you couldn’t sleep last night,” I muttered to Jay. “This room is disgusting.”
“If I ran a ship, I’d keep it in top condition,” Jay replied. “The Skysailors are known for pillaging and piracy, but they aren’t famous for personal hygiene.”
I turned to him. “You’ve read a lot of a lot of books, haven’t you?”
“A few, yeah.” Jay shrugged, running a hand through his disheveled hair. “What else was I supposed to do? It gets boring when you’re alone in the dark.”
Roland was swinging from a lower hammock, his foot dangling from the fabric and a sword in his hand. I watched as he ran the length of the blade across a similar looking object, the sound of metal on metal piercing through the air. His eyes remained set on his blade, scarcely shifting when we approached him.
“Roland, earlier you said something about the Light Kingdom, as if you knew about it,” Jay said, ignoring Roland’s continued attempts to sharpen his blade. “We can’t speak with Kincho anymore, so we need to hear everything you have to say.”
“I don’t send people on ghost hunts,” Roland said, his voice level. “Especially not ignorant Cave-Dwellers who ally with people like me.”
“You don’t understand,” I interjected. “A lot of people are waiting for us to return with the cure that the Lucent people have in their kingdom. An entire race of people, actually.”
Roland sat up, taking his time to put his sword back in the holster. He leveled his gaze with mine, a string of hair falling across his dark eyes. “Your people sent three thieves to return with a fabled cure for a race of creatures you cannot fight? No. You’re not on a mission to save your people; you’re a pawn in a bigger picture, and I don’t wish to see the ending.”
I copied Jay and crossed my arms, blowing a hair from my face with an exasperated sigh. “You haven’t seen the Stygian as we have. They have huge in numbers that only growing with each passing night. It’s urgent.”
“And what makes you so sure these Lucents will have what you’re looking for?” Roland asked. “How could a race of people that may not exist possibly have developed a cure for creatures such as these?”
My voice betrayed me with a slight wince as I said, “The Elders said they had one.”
Jay glanced at me, his gaze fractured. “Look, Bounty Hunter. Our leaders collected our family members and sent them to that place. All we know is that the Stygian operate in darkness, and the Lucents are known as the people of the light. It doesn’t matter to me that we don’t know for sure if they can help. I intend on finding my brother, with or without the cure. And if the Elders have as much power as I know they do, then James and Kye are waiting for us.”
Roland bent his head down and cradled his head against his palms momentarily, heaving a great sigh. “James and Kye were sent to the Light Kingdom? So, they’re acting as collateral if you die or ditch the mission?”
“Pretty much,” I admitted. “James went missing a few hours before the Elders explained what they wanted us to do.”
Roland was still staring at the ground, and I got the distinct impression that he was afraid meeting our gaze would betray his thoughts. “I don’t know a single explorer who hasn’t sought out the Light Kingdom, all on the promise that the land will somehow provide something for them. There is a story, you know, that claims that the traveler can only stumble upon the kingdom if they ask nothing of it.”
Jay and I exchanged a glance once again. I slid to the ground, crossing my legs and pulling the staff from my shoulders. “It sounds like you’ve sought it out, too,” I ventured.
Roland’s expression hardened. “As I said, everyone who is someone once sought out the Light Kingdom. Lucky for you I have, or I wouldn’t know where to begin looking.”
“Where do we even begin searching?” Jay asked, sitting down next to me on the ground.
“The Blue Light District is your best bet, considering they have access ports to each kingdom there. Also you need the Oracle Stones. The Oracle is the only sorcerer powerful enough to open a way into the kingdom that I can think of, and the Stones connect you to her,” Roland said, scratching the back of his neck wearily. “And they’re housing the closest possible Oracle Stones. But the Blue Light District is several days away, even by boat.”
I had heard about the Light Districts many times before — the string of cities that were ruled by the High Prince himself. This is just another way of saying they had fallen into separate, crumbling governments long ago under his reign. The Blue Light District was the highest of the cities, with a rising advancement in electricity and other things I couldn’t make sense of.
“What would the Oracle be doing in a city like that?” I asked, envisioning the roaring nightlife that was so often depicted within the Light District scrolls back home.
“The Oracle established her stones before the cities, I imagine,” Roland said, waving the question away. “The Oracle Stones are dangerous to deal with. I was unable to work them because I was lacking a companion. But with three of us, perhaps we could succeed.”
“Four of us,” Jay said. “You’re forgetting Lynx.”
Roland shook his head. “She isn’t continuing on the journey. I’ve already spok
en with her.”
“When did you speak with her?” Jay asked.
“She’s left you in the night, boy,” Roland continued. “Escaped. I helped her cut the ropes to the raft.”
I didn’t like the way his lip curled in grim satisfaction at the words. “So you’re coming with us, then?” I asked him.
Roland nodded. “But you need to know one last thing. I’m giving you this warning only once, so listen carefully.” He hesitated, his steely eyes landing on mine without malice. “You are Cave-Dwellers. I am a citizen of the Blue Light District. We all belong somewhere in the Fringe, and that is how it always has been. But when I was in pursuit of the Light Kingdom, I met with a man named The Professor. He explained to me that using the Oracle Stones would alter your personal identity, something known only as the Creation — or, Statera if you want the proper name. For many, this was the draw to the Light Kingdom. For others, the possibility of being transformed as the Stones willed was terrifying. Not only would the Oracle use you now as she wishes, but you might never actually receive what you wanted within the Light Kingdom.”
Jay shrugged. “Okay, troubling, but nothing we can’t handle.”
Roland continued. “The catch is that the Oracle Stones only require the sacrifice of one member of the group to the Creation. That is the cost of entering the Light Kingdom. To open one doorway, the oracle requires another to close. That is why I couldn’t enter. I was alone, and the risk was too great.”
“Is there any evidence of the Creation occurring?” I asked, falling back against the pole and pulling my leg up to my chest. The action made me wince, but I disregarded the pain.
Roland shook his head. “The Professor suspected that the Lucent people were products of the Creation itself, that they had somehow transformed at the dawn of time into ethereal beings, but he wasn’t certain.”
“But the Creation doesn’t mean certain death,” Jay said slowly.
Roland fixed him with an odd look that I couldn’t quite decipher. “Certain death for some, not for others. It depends on who the Oracle seems worthy of changing, or worthy of dying,” Roland said, a foreign smile crossing his battered face. “She’s a power hungry spirit with a knack for getting what she wants. She intends on shaping the universe, and she’s been successful thus far. The Creation is merely step one.”
