World Warden, page 18
Elias smiled. He finished undressing and settled down next to Tristan. Sleep came quickly, and his dreams were peaceful for most of the night.
Until they weren’t.
A shiver woke Elias up. He was dizzy for a moment. He looked around, not really knowing where he was.
Thrum. Thrum.
He sat up, and memories arranged themselves. He was inside the tent. He had been sleeping. And….
Thrum. Thrum.
A sound. Except it was not a sound. It was more like a low-frequency beat, resonant, traveling through the ground and into his mind.
Thrum. Thrum.
“Tristan. Wake up.”
“Uh….”
“Wake up. Something’s wrong.”
Without waiting for Tristan, Elias grabbed his spine and crawled from the tent, blinking in the dim light of early dawn. As soon as he was out, the resonant sound stopped.
Tristan came out of the tent with a grunt of protest. Elias looked all around, trying to see whether anything was missing. Vanor and Siv were still sleeping soundly next to the tent. There were no animals nearby, no Flyers in the air. Narev was still sitting at the edge of the water, watching. He was as still as a statue.
Thrum.
It was like a physical blow. Elias had been about to take a step, but he staggered. Tristan’s arms steadied him.
“What’s that?” Tristan asked.
The two sleeping wurl uncoiled their bodies and looked around.
Thrum.
Vanor and Siv growled.
“It’s getting closer,” Elias said. He scanned the ocean and spotted something. “Look, Tristan. Look at the water.”
There was a large disturbance on the surface of the water, approaching quickly. Nothing seemed to be making it, however. It was just… there.
Thrum. Thrum.
The disturbance stopped, and the ripples from its passage faded. The low-frequency waves were almost painful now, coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.
“What…,” Tristan started to say. He did not finish his sentence.
Narev, who had remained motionless up to that point, suddenly jumped up and roared. The other two wurl were close behind, and they all charged, snarling, attacking something invisible.
THRUM.
Vanor and Siv stopped in their tracks. Elias had been about to move after them, but his feet wouldn’t obey him. He tried again, but the sound was still in his mind, reverberating, maddening. He couldn’t move. The sound wouldn’t allow it.
No. Not a sound, Elias realized. This is a song.
Elias was reduced to watching as Narev jumped into the water. Of all of them, he alone had not been affected by the sound. There was a big splash as Narev dipped below the waves. He resurfaced a moment later and powered ahead, swimming faster than Elias had ever seen him go.
And he kept swimming. At first Elias thought Narev was heading for whatever invisible attacker was nearby. When moments turned into minutes, though, Narev’s outline became a dot in the distance. Then it disappeared entirely.
He’s abandoning us, Elias thought desperately. Then he realized Narev would not do that. Someone—something—had made him.
All at once, the spell broke and Elias staggered forward.
“Narev,” Elias shouted, running to the edge of the water. “Come back!”
“Elias, be careful!”
Siv and Vanor rushed forward too, stopping barely out of the reach of the waves. They were looking left and right, as if trying to locate the invisible Singer they all knew was there.
“Show yourself!” Elias demanded, slashing at the air with his spine. “Stop being such a coward!”
Something moved in the shallows, much closer than Elias had expected. The water parted as if something were pushing through it.
THRUM.
The thing rose out of the water and decloaked. He was large, as big as Vanor, but his neck was freakishly long, sinuous, and adorned by hanging strands of something that looked like kelp. His triangular head was monstrous, clearly visible now against the light of the rising sun. Three red eyes crowned his forehead, like those of any other wurl, but his jaw was nothing like that of Spine or Flyer. It hung partially open, segmented in three, and its gaping inside surface was riddled with needle-like teeth from which drooled a thick and viscous liquid.
The Singer gave a mighty push and propelled his body forward until it was almost out of the water. The suddenness of his motion created a miniature wave that surged against Elias’s legs, but Elias scarcely noticed.
This is not a juvenile, he realized with a sinking heart. This is a fully grown male.
The creature he had seen several nights ago had been smaller, much more limber. This new creature was larger, stronger looking, and radiated an aura of confidence and power. His body was covered in scales of different shades of light green and aqua that made it difficult to follow his outline against the water. Protrusions that looked like fins on his back were also covered by the dark-green kelp strands that hung from his neck. His tail was long, almost as long as his entire body, and the wurl flicked it once across the water with shocking speed, almost as if flaunting his strength.
It was the tentacles, though, that drew Elias’s terrified gaze.
The creature’s body was supported by six tentacles that took the place of his legs. They were hefty and muscular, like his neck and his tail, and they looked deadly. Even in the growing light of the rising sun, spots along the entire length of the tentacles glowed softly with a yellow-green luminescence that made them entrancing to look at. The Singer appeared to stand easily on the beach, using his appendages like legs, and when a particularly large wave receded, exposing the majority of his body, Elias was caught between terror and awe.
There was something about this creature that was different from other wurl. Barnacles encrusted his back, as if granting him armor that had grown over decades. His wicked disjointed maw advertised the fact that this was a being of the depths, a thing that was used to absolute domination of his environment. Even now, almost fully on land, the Singer showed no fear whatsoever.
Standing on either side of Elias, Siv and Vanor had apparently had enough. They roared with an earsplitting synchronized shriek, and even the Singer wurl hesitated, lowering his neck to look at his land-bound counterparts. As he did, Elias saw something odd. There was a silver spine sticking out from the side of the Singer’s neck, near its base. By its length and girth, Elias knew that the spine belonged to Narev.
Elias had a fleeting memory of standing neck-deep in the ocean at night, surrounded by blue bioluminescence. Something had flown past his ear, striking… striking this Singer, who had been trying to lure him to his death.
In the aftermath of the shriek from the Spine wurl, the Singer pushed back with all six tentacles, spraying them with a mixture of water and stinging sand. The motion propelled his body back to the shelter of the water and made both Vanor and Siv stumble. As the water enveloped him, the Singer opened his triangular maw like a carnivorous plant unfolding its deadly flower. Elias expected a roar of defiance.
Instead, there came a song.
It was a deep thrumming that threaded itself through Elias’s consciousness, rhythmical, deep, irresistible. It spoke of the eternal permanence of the ocean and of the inevitability of waves crashing against the beach. It was simple but undeniable, like the beat of the heart that pumped blood through Elias’s body.
Thrum. Thrum.
Its echoes reverberated in the empty chambers of Elias’s mind, which had been cleared of any other thought. There was nothing to do but listen to the song. It had always been there, and it would always be there. It was simplicity itself. It was—
Narev. They took Narev.
The thought skewered the cacophony in Elias’s mind.
I have to fight this. The Singer is not getting away.
The spine in Elias’s hand tingled, and from it Elias registered clarity. It spread through his body like an electric shock, jolting him awake.
“No!” he shouted, raising his weapon in the air. “You won’t get awa—”
The creature was gone.
“Watch out!” Tristan shouted next to Elias. “Watch ou—where is it?”
Vanor was partially in the water, looking around as if confused. Siv stood farther back, spines flared, but his anger had no target.
“It’s gone,” Elias said, his voice heavy with dismay. “It kept us frozen in place and swam away.”
“What if it’s still here?” Tristan asked, his hands bunched into fists. He hadn’t even had time to get his shock spear. “What if it’s back to being invisible?”
Elias shook his head. “Even if it’s invisible, you can still see its body moving in the water. Tristan, the Singer lured Narev away. We have to go. We need to go now!”
Tristan nodded. “Right. Where?”
“That way,” Elias answered with complete certainty. It was faint, but he could still sense Narev’s presence. “Let’s get in the boat. We won’t let them kill him.”
There was no need to say anything else. Elias and Tristan packed the last few things they would need into the boat with nearly choreographed efficiency. Both Vanor and Siv appeared to understand that their cooperation would be needed, and they helped push the boat all the way to the edge of the water. Then they allowed Elias and Tristan to tie long, sturdy ropes around their necks.
After the tethers had been secured to both wurl and boat, Elias and Tristan pushed the vessel fully into the water and climbed aboard, managing not to spill any of its precious contents.
Following Elias’s mental nudge, both wurl waded into the water. They swam ahead until the ropes connecting them to the boat grew taut, but they experienced a brief moment of confusion. Wurl had never done what they were about to do.
Elias took Tristan’s hand. He looked ahead at the horizon, which was burning with shades of pink and red as the sun rose over the water, and he focused his attention on the fading mental echoes of Narev.
Go. Swim, he told the wurl, projecting the urgency of their situation. Find him!
Chapter 12. Thorns
THE CREATURE sailed through the air, still snarling, in an arc to where Oscar was standing.
“Stand back!” Samantha shouted and snatched something out of her pack. A water bottle.
Oscar shuffled to the side as the creature landed less than two meters away from them and prowled sideways, now focused entirely on Samantha. She, in turn, took a combat stance and held the water bottle like a sword.
Oscar could barely breathe. The creature took a couple of steps, turning its head clockwise in a very odd motion that was accompanied by the threatening gnashing of its bony maw. Samantha did not move but stood at the ready as the creature took another step to the left and then another. The tips of its fangs glistened, and something similar to saliva, but oddly dark red, dripped from its mouth.
The creature attacked with no warning, and Oscar could not even scream. It lunged at Samantha, who appeared to have been expecting the assault. She whipped the water bottle forward and slammed it expertly against the side of the creature’s head, hard enough that Oscar heard a crack, although whether it had been the bottle or the creature’s skull, he could not tell in the midst of the loud yelping that followed.
The creature tumbled to the ground, snarled again, and then turned tail and ran. It disappeared up the side of one of the hills and got lost amid the tree trunks. After it was gone, all that was left was a small pool of its saliva.
“Are you okay?” Oscar asked, concerned.
“Yes,” Samantha replied, examining the water bottle. “It was merely a forest hound.”
“What if it comes back? What if it has friends?”
Samantha held the bottle up to the sun and sighed, apparently relieved. “Thank goodness. I thought I had cracked it.”
“Samantha? What if it comes back?”
She focused on him. “Oh, no need to worry about that. Forest hounds are solitary. This one will not return, I can assure you.”
“I thought you said creatures here would leave us alone if we left them alone? What was that all about? Is something going to come out of that cave and try to kill us?”
Samantha shook her head. “It must have been very hungry. I have been here many times, and I have rarely been attacked. I should have brought my spear, though. Just in case.”
“Your spear?” Oscar asked, disbelieving at first. Then he suddenly remembered the yult-wood spears he had seen in what was now his room.
“I had one the day we attacked Portree,” Samantha explained. “It is a good weapon to use when I ride Doran because of its long reach.”
“And you casually know all of this cool combat stuff because….”
Samantha shrugged. “I have practiced using weapons since I was young. I was taught from an early age.”
“Okay. Wow. At an early age I was taught how to make pictures with glue and macaroni.”
Samantha looked as if she were about to crack a smile, but she appeared to contain herself. “In any case, here we are. Follow me. There is work to be done.”
Oscar went after Samantha as they trudged up one of the nearby hills, where they approached a particularly large, forbidding, dark cave opening.
Oscar stopped a few steps away from the cave since Samantha appeared to have every intention of going in. “Um, Samantha?”
“Yes?” she asked, turning back. The sun had risen in the sky, and its warm light made Samantha’s obsidian-black hair glisten.
“Why are these called the Nightmare Caves?”
She gestured with her head, indicating the cave. “Come in. You’ll see.”
“I don’t like this,” Oscar whispered to himself, but as Samantha disappeared inside the cave, he realized that he could either follow or be left out in the open, alone, exposed to whatever other creatures might come. He decided to go in.
The difference in temperature was apparent after just a few steps. It was much cooler inside the cave, although it was quite dark. Oscar clicked his link’s flashlight on.
“Turn that off!” Samantha exclaimed.
Click.
“Whoops. Sorry, why do we have to be in the dark?”
“I never use light here,” she explained. “I do not know whether anything living here will be bothered by the light.”
“Again, not helping to reduce the creepiness factor,” Oscar grumbled. “How do you even find your way around, then?”
“Bioluminescent beetles,” she said. “Here, take my hand so you do not get lost. It is not far to the first clearing.”
“Um….” Oscar hesitated a bit, suddenly nervous about taking Samantha’s hand, and she stepped closer and took his left in her right. He realized her hand was smaller than his, although he could tell there was significant strength in her grip.
They began walking, going slowly but in a definite direction. The darkness around them grew, but it never was pitch-black. The air smelled fresh inside the cave, and there was a persistent and gentle breeze blowing past both of them that hadn’t been apparent outside.
“Watch your step,” Samantha instructed. Her voice echoed in the chamber, which sounded as though it was large. “Use the beetles to guide you.”
There were indeed many small beetles with triangular bodies crawling about, giving off a gentle blue glow. Although not very bright, they at least indicated where there was a rock or a solid surface, and Oscar managed not to trip or fall as he stepped after Samantha, reassured by the fact that she was holding his hand.
Before long, Oscar saw literal light at the end of the tunnel, and he realized they were almost out of the cave.
At that moment the howling began.
The gentle breeze that had been blowing past him picked up speed and became a buffeting wind in a couple of seconds. At the same time, an unearthly sound of moaning that sounded like a hungry ghost vibrated through the cave, bounding off the walls and creating echo after echo in such a way that the howling seemed to be all around him, as though Oscar and Samantha were surrounded by specters intent on touching them with their clammy, dead hands.
“Oh man,” Oscar said. “That’s not an animal, is it?”
“Only the cave,” Samantha reassured him.
“How long is it going to last?”
Samantha did not reply, and the two of them waited in silence as the howling multiplied around them. Eventually, though, the wind died down and the creepy sound ended.
“The wind in the caves makes the howling noise,” Samantha explained. “My ancestors named these the Nightmare Caves because of the sound, obviously. All of the tunnels and spaces in the limestone rocks of this region are interconnected with one another. Everywhere you go, the wind follows. You can hear the howling here, at the edge of the network of caves, or much deeper in. I have explored the caves very thoroughly. I have even found….”
“Found what?”
“Not important. Now you know why we call them this.”
“Right. Can we go, like, to the light? The darkness is creeping me out big-time, and all this ghost stuff is not my thing.”
“Of course.”
When they finally exited the cave, Oscar was forced to cover his eyes from the glare of the sun after the darkness from before. His eyes teared up as they got used to the light again.
“How come all of these places have names?” he asked, rubbing his face.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, back when I was in prison, I asked you about your food, and you said you guys don’t name your food. How come these places do have names?”
Samantha paused for a moment, as if thinking of the answer. “I suppose it is because the names here are very old. My ancestors named the Nightmare Caves, the Field of Thorns, and other places too.”
Oscar opened his eyes, finally used to the light. “And what happened to them? Your ancestors? Why is it only you guys left here?”
Samantha gave him a quick look that could have been filled with anger, sadness, or something else entirely. “Help me collect food.”
“Okay,” Oscar said, deciding not to push the subject. “Where?”
