Smoke and Mirrors (26)

Twenty-Six

A Path as Dark as this

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The next day, we were on our way again with Sterling slung across Adrien’s shoulders.

“I have a good feeling about this path,” Adrien said after a while. “I know you don’t like the fact that the paths change, but this time it may work in our favor. Read what the map says now.”

I cleared my throat and in the most Siri-like voice I had, replied, “Turn left in two turns, then merge onto a shadowy pathway near a deer statue.” I snickered at myself and folded the map again.

He furrowed his eyebrows. “Did I miss a pun or something?”

I glanced at him, a smile on my lips and shook my head, “Nah. It’s an Outsider thing.” I folded the map.

“Ah.”

After a while, the hollows of the dark shadow trees didn’t seem so ominous anymore. Only yesterday I felt like monsters were going to leap out from under the large, twisted roots of the trees and attack us, but after spending the night in–and beside–one, they felt almost harmless. I still had my doubts though, especially when I watched a raccoon-sized, hairless creature tumble out of one tree’s roots. It clambered up the branches. When the creature reached the top of the tree, it looked down at us and hissed a low, cat-like noise, wrinkling up its snout to reveal rows of sharp teeth.

I barely managed to fight back a whimper.

“Shh, it’s okay,” Adrian whispered. “It’s called a whump. He’s harmless unless you’re stealing his food.”

My whimper turned into the urge to laugh. “A what?”

“A whump.”

I grinned. “We use that name as a word on the Outside. If a person or character, especially if they’re part of your OTP, is going through some trauma, we call it–”

“What’s an. . . ‘Oh-tee-bee’?”

I couldn’t help but giggle now, and the whump hurried off into the treetops. “It’s like when you ship–er, really want a couple to get together. Like, if I go to town and I think two people act cute around each other, I would call them my ‘One True Pair’, but the phrase gets shortened to ‘OTP’. So now if a character, or a group of characters, or my OTP, starts going through a lot of physical or mental trauma, we call it a ‘Whump’.”

He glanced at me with furrowed brows, a thoughtful expression tugging at his features. Just when I thought he was going to call me crazy, his expression turned into a small smile. “I think it’s interesting that Outsiders want to see love so badly, they’re willing to make up fake scenarios between people to find it.” He readjusted Sterling’s position on his back and continued moving.

I blinked at the back of his head as he walked on, slightly stunned at his reply. Then I chuckled to myself and hurried to catch him. “Man, Tumblr would love you.”

He glanced back at me. “Who is ‘Tumblr’?”

I hid a grin. “That’s a topic for another day.”

We continued on for a while until Adrien needed to rest. I also needed a break, but I didn’t mention that fact since he was the one carrying Sterling on his back.

We stopped at a small clearing in the woods and I began gathering wood from the small scrubby branches and shrubs to make a fire while Adrian sat and stretched his back.

Sterling was trembling in his sleep beside Adrian and I felt a pang of sympathy for him. I quickly shoved the feeling away.

“What are we going to do for food?” I asked, dropping my armload of wood beside Adrian. He stacked it into a pile and snapped his fingers, causing a small spark to ignite some of the moss growing on the wood. “All of my packs are in Sterling’s mirrors.” My stomach grumbled, as if in agreement.

Adrian sighed and pulled his pack open. He rummaged through it for a moment and withdrew some kind of leather-wrapped package, which was roughly the size of my hand. “Here, eat this. I have more. It’s a dried fruit that my people often carry on long treks. It’s very filling.”

I tentatively took it and began unwrapping it. “This won’t make me glow or anything weird, will it?”

He chuckled. “Nope. You’re going to want to drink some water though, and eat lightly. It expands in your stomach and it gets bigger than you’d think.”

I bit my lip and glanced around at our surroundings helplessly. “I’m not seeing any handy springs this time.”

He looked up from his sack. “I have one bag of water, but it’s my emergency supply. Unless you’re about to die from dehydration, we can’t mess with it.”

I sighed and kicked at some kind of grey, ashy-looking nut, which hit a nearby tree and crumbled into dust.

“So, what do we do? Are there any towns nearby?”

He withdrew the map from the sack. “A few miles up, but I have to be honest, I–”

“--Can’t carry Sterling that much farther? That’s okay, I unders–”

“--Actually, I was going to say I don’t think you can walk that much farther.” He studied the map.

I opened my mouth to defend myself, then snapped it shut and crossed my arms. “Fine, that’s also true.” My legs ached terribly.

He chuckled. “Look, there are a lot of underground springs in the Shadow kingdom. I’ll look around for something, you stay here.”

I wrapped my arms around myself and sat down. “Fine. But hurry back, this place gives me the creeps.”

He disappeared into the woods, leaving me alone with an unconscious Sterling.

I studied Sterling’s features. He was, unfortunately, handsome–when he wasn’t trying to kill me. If we were different people in another world with different goals in life–I mostly speak of his goals changing, you see--I would probably find him pretty cute. His looks, that is. His personality was more rotten than the grocery store’s produce we used to shop at on the Outside before mom faked her death.

A rustling from the bushes behind me made me turn my head. Adrian was running towards us with a big grin on his face.

“I knew this was a good path to take!” he proclaimed.

I stood. “How so? Did you find a spring?”

“Better! I found the Capital of Rafforun. The Hall of Shadows is right through those woods!”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh yay.” Miraculously, my legs felt like they could walk again. For a short distance, anyway.

Adrian moved to put out the fire, then turned to me. “You try putting the fire out. You need to learn somehow, cousin.”

I shrugged. “Sure! I can’t promise you’ll get any results, though. I can’t seem to make my Talents work when I want them to.”

“That’s because you’re not used to controlling your talent.” He gestured towards the fire. “Put your arm out and touch the fire.”

I licked my lips and hesitantly touched the fire. It still scared me, even though I knew it wouldn’t hurt me. I was just so used to people getting burned on the Outside that I could barely make myself leave my hand there.

The fire greeted my hand like a warm, comforting friend. Soft, flowy, enveloping my hand like warm sunlight. Except, of course, that this was a lot more than a small ray of sunlight and a year ago, my skin would have caught on fire.

“That’s it,” Adrian murmured. “Now pull it into yourself. Absorb it.”

I released a breath and projected my thoughts towards the fire. Come on, little guy. It’s time to go. If you come with me, you’ll get to go on all kinds of adventures. Fire never gets to go on adventures, but you sure will, buddy. Come on.

I felt a tether to the fire in my hand. It wasn’t real of course, but I felt like it was. I pulled on it and the fire disappeared. Warmth traveled through my veins and went through my body, warming me. It felt refreshing somehow, as if it was filling some part of me I’d never known was empty.

“That’s it! You did it!” Adrian exclaimed, patting my shoulder.

I smiled and looked at him. “It feels great. It’s like drinking hot cocoa during the winter or something.”

He raised a brow. “Not sure what that is, but it does feel good. Our bodies work better with controlling our fire if we kindle the fire inside us.”

I snorted. “That sounds ridiculous.”

“It might, but right now that fire is inside of you.” He titled his head. “Real quickly, try creating fire. Just on your hand.”

I held up my hand and looked at my fingers. I imagined the fire dancing on the tips of my fingers, then began to feel warmth build up there. I allowed it to seep out in small bits and fire appeared at the end of my fingers.

I squealed and the fire disappeared. “I did it! I actually did it!”

He laughed. “Good job. You are now ready to take on any four-year-old who might try to attack you.”

I stuck my tongue at him and folded my arms. “I might be weak still, but at least I can do it. That’s better than when I first found out I was supposed to be able to control fire.”

I held my hand out and tried again, but sneezed instead. Fire shot out of my entire arm and I quickly turned away from Sterling to keep him from being burned.

I stopped the fire and looked at Adrian sheepishly. “Sorry.”

Adrian grimaced. “That might be enough for today. You did good though. Well, better, anyway.” He chuckled.

I had to agree.

He lifted Sterling onto his shoulders, who cried out in his sleep.

“He’s really getting cold,” Adrian said. “Once we get to the city, we’ll get him cooled down and hopefully it’ll break the Shade fever.”

We walked through the woods for only a short distance before we came across the city.

It was huge–full of tall, shadowy buildings that, to the untrained eye, looked like nothing more than normal shadows, oddly cast against the dark, murky background of trees, hills and greyness.

“How do we get in?” I asked. “It looks. . . confusing.”

“Just keep walking,” Adrian replied. “If they choose to accept us, the city will be easier to see.”

We continued walking. The sensation of knowing someone was watching you, but never seeing people to match the feeling, was very strange and uncomfortable.

A shadow began crawling apart from Adrian’s, as if his own shadow was breaking into two pieces and moving. However, unlike most shadows, the one morphed into the shape of a human and became more visible–-although I could still see through him like a ghost, which made me shiver.

The man had dark grey hair, even though he couldn’t have been much older than Adrian or I was. He smiled, which was unsettling given the fact that I could see trees from the background through his face. “Adrian! It’s been a long time, my friend.” He paused and furrowed his brows. “But your shadow in you is darkened. A fear–a trouble? What is in your shadow?”

Adrian grinned. “It’s been a while, Blitz. I’ve been meaning to visit, but you know how my mother is.” He paused and dropped the grin on his face. “I need your help. You were right; there is a trouble in my shadow. My mother has stolen the last Unicorn horn–I’m sure you’re aware of the fact–and we need it back before the Inside is destroyed.”

The man gave a firm nod and locked eyes with me. “You may find that our children have had issues with their own powers as well. But tell me”--He narrowed his eyes at me–”Who is this?”

I shuffled my feet under his unnerving gaze. What do you say to a shadow? I felt like a ‘hi’ and a polite wave wasn’t enough. Ugh, why did my power have to be sneezing fire or water?! Why not something practical like people skills?!

“Hi,” I said with a polite wave.

He stopped squinting at me. “She is the Prophesied one.” He looked at Adrian. “You know this, don’t you?”

Adrian laughed. “Which Prophesied one? There’s an awful lot of prophecies. But yes, she is. And she happens to be my cousin, so if you wouldn’t mind. . .” He paused. “Go easy on her. Don’t scare her too much.”

“I don’t scare easy,” I piped up. This was a complete lie. I couldn’t even watch old 50’s horror movies without getting creeped out by the cheesy costumes and plastic figurines. But I felt the need to defend myself anyway.

The creepy shadow man gave me a chilling smile–or maybe that was the wind–and nodded. “Alright, I’m sure you don’t.” He directed his attention to Sterling, who was slung over Adrian’s back. His eyes widened. “Shadow Fever. What happened?”

“Shade Bandits,” Adrian replied. “This is the King of Mirrors. I need a place to let him rest for a bit, if you don’t mind letting us stay.”

The shadowy figure nodded. “Of course, of course. Follow me.” He turned away and suddenly, the shadows all seemed to make sense.

Blurred objects that once looked like mere shadows were now real buildings, painted brightly with colors that almost seemed blinding against the grey, bleak landscape. Swirls of color blossomed out from under our feet and spread across the walkways and buildings. The colors were different from normal colors, though. It looked like the shadows made up the buildings and were being manipulated to have color, instead of the buildings being painted, like on the Outside.

“Hurry, this way. The town will move soon,” the man informed us.

We followed him through the town. Children were ducking inside at the beckoning of their parents. Rope ladders were dropped from the windows of apartments, allowing people to hurry into the rooms without having to go through the bottom floors.

“What’s happening?” I asked Adrian. “Why is everyone running away?”

“The city is folding up,” he replied, falling into step beside me. “It will disappear soon and appear in some other section of land.”

I took in the information with curiosity. “Where are we going?”

“This man is an old friend of mine. He’s the Prince’s advisor and he comes from a very trust-worthy family. He will put us up for the night.”

I didn’t reply, but scanned the town carefully. It was crazy how different–how alive–everything was now that we were in the shadows instead of on them.

We came to a stop at a giant castle and, after passing the guards, found our way to a smaller–but in no way small–house attached to the end of the castle.

“The Advisor and his family live here,” Adrian informed me.

“It’s. . . big,” I said, eyeing the large mansion that towered above us. Unlike the colors of the town, the castle and the house were a murky grey color.

“Don’t worry, it’s better inside.”

We were ushered in by servants, who took Sterling and carried him off to a spare room.

“He will be treated with the finest healers,” the man told us as we eyed the retreating servants. He turned towards me and bowed. “I beg your pardon, Princess. I have yet to tell you my name. I am Rin, Advisor to the prince and firstborn of the house of Loyrn.”

I smiled and offered a clumsy curtsy. I needed to get better at those. “Call me Tessa, please. I’m not used to anything else.”

The inside of his house really was nicer. The floor was tiled with gold and silver–whether real or not I didn’t know–as well as some kind of blue metal that glowed faintly. This metal made up the sconces on the walls, the chandeliers, and the door handles. The ceiling was a dark ebony.

“Of course, your Highness,” Rin replied.

We enjoyed a wonderful supper and were shown our rooms, which were just as wonderful.

However, I found myself unable to sleep. Sterling’s pain was on my mind, playing over and over in my head. I sat up in my bed and wandered down the hallway, where Sterling’s room was located. At first I had been worried–was his door to the left, or right?--but soon my worries were dispelled when I opened his door and found him laying on the bed inside.

He didn’t have a shirt on, but his torso was wrapped in bandaging. Some kind of green salve seeped through the bandages. His face looked more at ease than it had earlier, but it was still wrinkled across his forehead, as if however the doctor helped him didn’t entirely erase whatever taunted him in his dreams.

I quietly closed the door and crept up to the bed. A fire was going in the room and it felt incredibly nice–which, for anyone else, would have been too warm–but Adrian said that was the best thing for him with his fever.

The fire licked at his features, casting shadows from his nose across his face. He had a nice face, actually. It was a pity his personality didn’t match it.

It was then that I noticed something strange about him.

On his right arm–not the one facing me, but the one closest to the opposing wall–was a faintly glowing light, as if his skin was glowing there. Intrigued, I walked around the bed and examined it closer.

Swirling patterns marked his arm, starting just past his elbow and swirling higher until they disappeared behind the bandaging around his shoulder. And they glowed, reader. Glowed!

Did everyone from this world do that? No–I had seen Yin Yue’s arms before and hers looked perfectly normal. So what about Sterling? Was this salve from the doctors?

But no–I could tell it wasn’t. The skin that glowed was marked–scarred, as if someone had tried cutting it. Jagged scars ran up and down his arm from every angle, some thin and some wide.

What did this to him?

I heard him groan–quietly at first, then louder. I stepped back.

It was then that a thought occurred to me. One so dark and horrible, that it sent a shiver down my spine.

What if I killed him?

My breath caught in my throat.

I could do it easily.

Water seemed to swirl around me the more I focused on it, calling for me to use it. It was everywhere. In the air, in the salve on his chest, and inside Sterling. I could drown him and never again have to worry about him being a threat to my life.

I shook my head. What was I thinking?! I could never take his life. What kind of a person was I turning into?! How could I even think of. . . killing him?

I sucked in a breath and hurried out of the room.