Darkness of Time, page 14
She poured more water over the hot stones.
I became so hot that I thought I’d die. Perspiration dripped into my eyes, stinging them and making me blink wildly. Drenched in heat, I could barely remember my name.
The rattle was handed to me. I shook it, unable to think of a thing to say. My mind and body reeled from the intense storm inside and outside my body. I closed my eyes and continued to shake the rattle. All I could think about was the heat, the searing heat.
In a voice that didn’t sound like mine, that didn’t seem to come from me, I said, “Great Spirit, hear me. Grant me the strength to battle the darkness and slay the darkest of them all—Balthazar.”
A ferocious wind kicked up inside the teepee, raising the temperature even more. This strange gust billowed about me like my own private tempest. A keening noise issued from my mouth, coming from some fathomless place inside me.
A hand grabbed my neck, and my eyelids fluttered open.
Leaping Deer shoved my face to the ground and said, “Stay there. Stay low.” Then, she cried, “Begone, foul wind. Leave us!”
The wind howled, shrieking against my eardrums.
I pressed my palms to my ears to keep the sound at bay. With gritted teeth, I kept up with the keening as my face pressed against the dirt, seeking the coolness it provided.
Leaping Deer chanted something I couldn’t understand while Laughing Maid poured more water on the stones.
I became lost inside this strange, dark, intolerably hot world. Around me, this bizarre wind blew wildly, reeking of decay and rotting flesh, and sucked me into a terrifying vortex. I crawled on the dirt floor, trying to escape the heat, finding respite in the crack at the base of the hides. I pressed my nose to the gap like a little dog and focused on the slender slice of cool air that touched the end of my nose.
Leaping Deer kept up with the chanting, with me clinging to sanity.
At last, the door flap was thrown open, and a waft of night air came rushing into the lodge. I belly-crawled outside, spent, and collapsed upon the earth without prompting. Feeling as cleansed as if I’d been dipped repeatedly in the sea, I lay there. I didn’t have the strength to move.
What was that wind that blew in the enclosure? It didn’t feel benevolent, not one bit.
Soft hands fell upon my back, and I was urged onto my hands and knees and then to standing.
Leaping Deer stood back to regard me. She cocked her head and turned my face from side to side. Eventually, she nodded, satisfied with what she saw.
I felt shaky and weak, utterly exhausted, as I attached my blade and gun to my thighs. A white robe was thrown over my shoulders, and some markings were painted on my face.
“Come. You are ready to see the Great Spirit.” She led me beneath the moonless sky toward Roman, Marcellious, Earth Bear, and Grey Feather, who sat around a blazing bonfire.
Earth Bear wielded a drum, and he beat a steady rhythm with it while chanting and singing.
I collapsed next to Roman.
He flashed me a wan smile, appearing as spent as I was. Just like in Rome, he wore a simple leather loincloth. He looked genuinely fierce, his face and torso covered with red and black markings, obscuring his tattoos.
Marcellious’ eyes looked haunted in the flickering flames.
Leaping Deer departed, fading into the night like a wraith.
While Earth Bear kept up with the drumming and chanting, Grey Feather stood and intoned the four directions similarly to Laughing Maid. Then, he sat and picked up a rattle similar to the one we’d had in the sweat lodge.
The wailing in my ears began. I pressed my hands to the sides of my head.
Grey Feather shook the rattle with his eyes closed, saying something about the Great Spirit, guidance, and answers.
I couldn’t discern everything he said—the drum and the insistent shrieking blocked out all other sounds.
Both Roman and Marcellious looked at me, their brows creased in concern.
The drum grew louder, and Grey Feather’s voice boomed.
A shower of sparks erupted from the fire.
Grey Feather shouted and raised his arms to the sky.
“Show them the path!” he bellowed.
Another fountain of sparks exploded from the fire, and then, a dark, shadowy shape emerged.
“Look,” the dark figure said to me, pointing. “Look into your future.”
My mouth gaped as a scene unfolded before my eyes.
Blood dripped from the sky, spattering against the flames. Bodies fell upon the glowing logs and disappeared as puffs of smoke. The village was immersed in blood, pain, and misery. My heart shattered with grief as I heard people scream, caught in murderous chaos.
At first, I thought the screams came from the vision. But then, glancing toward the encampment, tribal people ran with torches, screaming and shouting while chased by ghostly visages.
And amid all the chaos stood my darkness, watching me, an evil grin upon its face.
“Olivia!” a voice called out.
I peered in the direction of the shout. “Emily?”
Emily sprinted toward me, her face pulled back in terror.
A dark shape appeared, moving like lightning as it chased her.
Emily let out a scream to wake the dead. “Somebody, help me!”
Marcellious bolted to his feet and raced toward her. He grabbed her in his arms.
I rose as if hypnotized and trudged toward the darkness. With slow, plodding footsteps, I moved toward my own personal demon, unable to stop.
Roman took off after me. “Olivia, what are you doing?”
Earth Bear kept on drumming and drumming and drumming.
The chief continued with his chants.
The world around me fell away as I strode, entranced toward my darkness. Black clouds billowed around me, obscuring everything but the darkness.
As I neared it, its cloak fell away and fluttered on an unseen wind into the night.
I stopped, standing face to face with this visage of evil.
Its wild hair looked more like dark smoke coiling around its head. And its skin, if it could be called skin, appeared charred. Pieces of it fell away as the darkness undulated before me, revealing a gray, cracked surface.
One of its eyes looked at me through a blood-red orb. The other looked like a black hole, ready to suck me into its vortex of depravity.
The creature leered at me with a toothless grin and began to speak. Its words seemed inside my head, clawing at my mind and outside me, battering at my eardrums. I held my hands before my face to shield me.
“We meet again, my darling. It’s been some time since I last saw you. You feel like you’re strong enough to take me. That’s where you’re wrong—I will kill you like I killed Amara.” The darkness swayed side to side, looming over me.
I squinted at the menacing shape and shivered. “You’re nothing but a bloodsucking monster, a devil!”
The creature laughed and said, “I actually have a name. Balthazar gave it to me.”
“Tell me. Tell me what your name is,” I demanded.
“It’s Dahlia,” she said, and the word ricocheted up my spine, tearing something loose. I knew this darkness.
My vision began to blur, and dots appeared before my eyes. “You… you’re…” I stammered.
“That’s right. I’m your darkness. And Balthazar will kill you—he’s hunting you as we speak.”
My knees began to tremble, and I feared I might faint. I searched for my friends, for Roman, finding them in the distance, like blurred shapes through a warped-looking glass.
The drums, chanting, and screams sounded like they came from far away, through a wall of water.
“You think you have bodyguards to protect you, but you’re wrong. Balthazar tells me you are weak—all of you. You are nothing but frightened rabbits, finding ways to hide in the field. But he sees you—we all do.”
A shiver rocked me, but I didn’t let it get to me. Instead, I stood tall, leaning forward slightly as I said, “Tell Balthazar I am not afraid of him. Why did he not show his face? Why did he send you instead? Is he that much of a coward?”
The darkness laughed, issuing a wind out of its mouth, much like the wind inside the sweat lodge.
Like in the sweat lodge, this wind stank of decaying flesh and rotting corpses and made me want to gag. I threw my arm over my face to try and ward off the stench.
“Balthazar has plans for all of you, especially you, my dear.” It thrust its finger in my direction, causing a shock wave to blast through my abdomen.
I fought back the urge to vomit. Summoning every ounce of strength, I said, “I am ready to finish you once and for all.”
I reached beneath my white robe and grabbed my dagger from my thigh. I remembered what Marcellious told me about how to kill my darkness. I was to take my blade, point it toward the heavens, and repeat the sacred words. In so doing, I would be able to control the darkness.
The darkness watched me as I pointed the dagger at the moon and began saying the ancient scripture.
“Ya hamiat alqamar fi allayl, ‘adeuk litutliq aleinan lilnuwr waturshiduni khilal alzalami. Dae alshams aleazimat tarqus min hawlik bialhubi walmawadati. Mean, aftahuu bawaabatikum wamnahwani alsafar eabr alzaman walmakan mithl zilal allay.”
My darkness struck like lightning, grabbing Laughing Maid in her arms.
Laughing Maid shrieked and cried, writhing in the arms of the demon holding her.
“Olivia, help me!” she cried in her native tongue.
I lunged for her, but the darkness snapped Laughing Maid’s neck before I could reach her.
Then, it dropped Laughing Maid’s limp body to the ground.
“No!” I cried out, falling to my knees.
Dahlia and her black clouds disappeared, leaving me kneeling before the dead Native American maiden with shrieks and cries.
The chief rose with a young man’s speed and said thunderously, “Everyone, get inside your teepee and stay there!”
“Those people,” Leaping Deer yelled, pointing at me, Roman, and Marcellious. “You let them into our tribe under our protection. You allowed danger to enter!”
She rushed toward me and shoved me out of the way, reaching for Laughing Maid’s limp body. “If these time travelers are here, we are in danger.”
The chief bellowed. “How dare you say that? Would you also turn Dancing Fire away?”
I stumbled to my feet as sharp stabs of grief split open my heart. Why did I cause so much sorrow to those I loved? Everywhere I went, I brought pain.
I dropped my head in my hands and began to sob. My body shook with emotion.
Strong hands wrapped around my arms and lifted me.
I turned, pressing myself into Roman’s warmth.
“Come on, my darling,” he said, tucking me against him.
“How can we destroy the darkness?” I blubbered.
“Shh,” Roman soothed. “No matter what, we will be together. We will find a way to defeat Balthazar.”
“But how? Every time I stand up to the darkness, it destroys someone I care about.” I felt consumed by despair so powerful it threatened to swallow me.
“Sweetheart,” Roman said, turning to face me. He placed his hands on my tear-stained cheeks. “Everyone has a weakness, even Balthazar. We will find his weakness. We will find it and exploit it. Then and only then will we be free.”
His words sounded comforting. But the reality of ever escaping Balthazar was too daunting to give me peace.
Olivia
The sun lingered behind the horizon when Emily and I awoke the next day. My heart seemed weighted as if stuffed with stones and sorrow.
We hustled around the teepee in the darkness, gathering our belongings to prepare for our departure.
“It’s so awful…what happened to Laughing Maid. The tribe must hate us right now if they think you’re responsible for her death,” Emily said, her voice tight with fear.
“They have every right to be angry. I am responsible. Everywhere I go, I bring the promise of pain and death, Emily,” I said, my voice cracking with grief. I felt along the hide-strewn floor for my moccasins and set to donning them.
“Oh, don’t say that, Olivia! Surely, you’re not the one who called this so-called darkness to come and kill Laughing Maid,” Emily said.
“It doesn’t matter. It always finds me. And when it does, it makes sure to kill someone I care about or have been in contact with.” Once my footwear was in place, I rose and said, “I need to go tell the chief we’re leaving.”
“Do you want company?”
“No, thank you. I feel I should go alone,” I said.
In truth, I was apprehensive about facing the great chief. But it was my duty to tell the wise elder face to face rather than leave him wondering like Marcellious had done when he disappeared. I didn’t want the chief to simply find us gone.
Outside of our teepee, I ghost-walked across the packed dirt, heading in the direction of Grey Feather’s dwelling. The encampment was eerily quiet. I pictured the residents huddled inside their homes, unwilling to venture out lest the darkness hunts them down.
As I approached the chief’s teepee, doubt rolled through me. Grey Feather might not even be awake. What did I plan on doing? Sneak into his lodge and shake his shoulder? What if I startled him, and he tried to attack me? He was an old warrior, and even though he might appear feeble, instincts were instincts.
Outside of his teepee, Earth Bear stood tall and imposing. “The great chief is ready to see you. He’s been waiting.”
I jerked back in surprise, barely able to make out Earth Bear’s face in the pre-dawn. “He is?”
“Yes,” Earth Bear said, pulling back the tent flap. “Enter.”
My stomach cramped as I ducked and made my way into the teepee.
A small fire burned brightly in the center, shooting sparks into the air.
Shadows danced along Grey Feather’s face, giving him an ominous expression.
“Sit,” he said, pointing opposite him.
I lowered into a “legs to the side” position and studied him through the flames.
“What happened last night was a travesty,” he said. “But it’s no cause for your departure. The people will see Laughing Maid’s death was not your fault. They will forgive you.”
My eyebrows flew up. How could he say something like this? Laughing Maid’s death was my fault, and the tribespeople had every right to be afraid of me. “That’s kind of you to say, but that’s not why we’re leaving. How did you even know about our imminent departure?”
He let out a long sigh. “I have been up all night, consulting with the Great Spirit. Wakan Tanka informed me you are leaving.”
I rested my hands in my lap and said, “We are, but it’s not why you think. I need answers. You informed me to look for the journal belonging to Fierce Wind. I believe Fierce Wind is the woman who came to Emily’s father’s land and fell in love with him. Her father, Philip, supposedly wrote detailed journals of their time together. If we find the journals, perhaps we will discover the whereabouts of Fierce Wind’s writing.”
The chief jerked back as if stunned by this news. “This young maiden, this Emily… Her father knew Fierce Wind?”
“Yes, I believe so. I think she is the same woman that he met and then she came here to you. But I’m not completely certain,” I said simply. The heat pouring from the fire made my cheeks hot to the touch, almost too warm, like in the sweat lodge last night. I scooted backward.
“Will you be leaving Hunting Wolf behind?” Grey Feather asked.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Both Hunting Wolf and Swift Hawk will be accompanying us. Our journey could be fraught with danger, and I need them.”
I studied the chief for a reaction.
His face seemed to melt into an expression of sorrow as he stared at the flames.
“We’ll be back, Grey Feather, I promise,” I said, not wanting to cause him more grief. “But we must find these journals. As you can see, the darknesses are indeed hunting us.”
The chief nodded. After several beats of silence, he bid me farewell and sent me away.
I glanced at him, noting the wet tears that clung to the corners of his eyes. Slowly, I rose and crept from the teepee.
My next stop was Roman’s dwelling. Outside, the faintest glimmer of dawn pushed through the night’s shadows. The same cacophony of bird songs accompanying every morning in the wilds filled the air.
I stepped lightly across the dirt as I headed for Roman’s.
The sound of sharp, angry voices greeted me from Roman’s teepee.
“What do you mean we’re leaving today?” Marcellious snapped.
“What I said. Emily’s father met the same time traveler who stayed with the tribe for a while,” Roman said in an even tone.
I opened the flap to the lodge and entered.
Roman and Marcellious were barely visible. Their faces were lit only by the wispy morning light seeping through the enclosure’s top.
“Olivia!” Roman said, turning to face me.
“Good morning. I see you’ve told Marcellious about us leaving,” I said, inching toward him.
“How do you know this isn’t a trap your friend has set up for us?” Marcellious growled.
“Good morning to you, too, Marcellious,” I said.
“I can’t believe you trusted her. You told her we’re time travelers? That was a mistake,” Marcellious said, ignoring my greeting. “What kind of fool are you? If word gets out that we’re Timebornes, we could be hung, shot, or burned at the stake.”
As he spoke, he gesticulated with sharp movements of his arms. “Or, did the people of your time believe in fairies and magic, so you thought this would be no big deal?”
“Not at all,” I said, swishing away his concerns with my palm. “The people in my time were suspicious of anything that didn’t match their reality. But I had to tell her, Marcellious, don’t you see? Not telling her would set her up for the fright of her life should the darkness come after her. Now that she knows, she can be watchful.”
