Call of Sunteri (Keepers of the Wellsprings Book 2) (19 page)

Azi

I come to on the floor of the inn with the faces of half of my guild swimming over me, almost as though I’m seeing them from beneath some glassy surface. I feel the pressure of it on my chest and try again to breathe. My lungs burn painfully and my head is pounding.

“Give her space,” Brother Donal says, and everyone except for Mum and Da backs away. They’re holding my hands but I can still feel the tiny, cool fingers around my fingertips even though I know they aren’t here. I left them behind, trapped someplace awful, threatened by some nightmarish shadow. I made a promise. I’ll save them. I’ll help them. I meet Mum’s eyes.

“We have to go. Me and Rian. Now. It can’t wait. They need help.” I try to sit up but Brother Donal pushes me down again gently. My chest aches and I fall into a fit of coughing that makes my head throb with pain as I fight for breath.

“Slow down, Azaeli,” Donal says. “Slow down and breathe. Water, Dacva.” His tone is so peaceful and quiet it’s almost disinterested. It infuriates me. I try to get up again and he presses his hands to my shoulders and looks at Mum and Da. “She needs to lie still.”

I close my eyes until Dacva comes back with a pitcher. Rian is right behind him asking questions. At the sound of his voice, I fight to sit up again.

“Rian,” I try to reach for him but they’re still holding my hands, keeping me down. He takes the cup from Dacva and helps me drink it, and it cools the burn in my throat. His eyes linger for a moment on my neck and then he and Mum exchange a worried glance.

“What did you find?” Brother Donal asks Rian as he helps me sip.

“Nothing,” Rian scowls. “Nothing unusual at all.”

“Curious,” Donal sighs. “Well, at least she’s coming to, now.” He brushes a hand over my head and whispers, and the tingling sensation of healing washes my headache away.

“I told you,” Rian murmurs, “you should’ve just let me sip it. I could have had her back with us much sooner.”

As the two argue, I become aware of other voices farther away. Mya speaking with the barkeep. Bryse and Da shouting at someone outside. Cort trying to quiet them. Others whispering.

“Look, she thinks she’s back.”

“Back with her friends.”

“Back in the smoky place.”

“She isn’t?”

“No, she isn’t.”

“No, she isn’t. Not all the way.”

“She can’t be.”

“She promised.”

“But she left.”

“Not really.”

“She’s in both places.”

“Yes, clever girl.”

The whispers come from far away, from that place beyond the darkness, a vast distance from the tavern. The forest with the fallen fairies. The Dreaming. My eyes drift closed as it pulls at me.

“Oh, no, Azi! She’s fading again,” Mum says from what sounds like the far end of a long tunnel. Her hand is heavy on mine, more solid.

“Azi, look at me. Open your eyes,” Rian says. I try to, but my eyelids don’t seem to want to do as I bid them. When I force them, I feel a lurch forward. I’m the rope in a game of tug of war. One side is reality, where my parents grip me tightly and Rian calls my name, and the other side is the Dreaming, where the whispering of fallen fairies lures me back.

“Promised, she did.”

“Do you remember it, girl? The promise?”

“Speak for us!”

“Speak for us.”

“Yes, in Kythshire,” I whisper aloud.

Rian calls my name and holds me, but I don’t feel him. Just like they said, I’m not there. Not really. I’m looking at all of them now, kneeling on the wood floor, holding me. Mum, Da, Rian, Donal. I see them from another perspective, as though I’m watching through the glass again at myself and the scene playing out around me. My body there fades away until Rian’s hands are pressed to the wood floor and Mum and Da kneel staring at their empty palms.

“
I understand
,” Rian pushes to me, and then it all goes black again.

“What just happened?” I whisper into the darkness.

“You sent your message, and now we must go, quickly!” the voices answer.

“No.” I blink into the darkness. My heart is racing with anger and confusion. “Not until you tell me exactly what’s happening. Am I really here, or am I there? Is this a dream, or isn’t it? If it’s not, then why am I dressed like this? I’ll help you, but I need to have my things. My armor, my sword.” My hand flies to my neck to feel for the cord that holds the pouch with Flitt’s diamond. It’s gone. I sink to my knees onto the soft, mossy ground. I wish I could see. “Why is it so dark?” I whisper mostly to myself, since the voices have gone silent.

“He’s coming. You must go. Quickly,” one brave whisper warns me.

I’m aware of someone running toward me with quick, light footsteps. At first I imagine the fox, but whatever it is sounds bigger. As it nears, I push myself to my feet. Aside from the quickened breath of my approacher and its footsteps, everything is silent. As it nears I’m aware of something else. Not something I can see or hear, but I can feel it like a fog creeping toward me. A dark energy, strong and confident. The softer footsteps quicken and I try to duck away from whoever it is, but we collide and she cries out as we tumble to the ground together.

“Who’s there?” we whisper in unison. The voice is familiar. I try to place it.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s coming. We have to run. Now!” She grabs my arm and pulls me up, and we crash through the dark forest together. My eyes have adjusted now, but it’s still too dark to make out anything but vague forms. I risk a glance at the woman beside me, half expecting to see myself again, but her hair is too dark and her figure too lithe. Her fur cloak spreads out behind her as she runs, and her bow is gripped tightly in her other hand.

“Ki?” I whisper.

“Not now,” she answers breathlessly. “Just run!”

Far ahead of us I can make out a golden glow between the trees, warm and inviting. Lovely sounds echo from within: laughter, music, birds chirping. It reminds me of the Ring in Kythshire. I push my legs harder in my effort to reach it. The faster I run, the farther away it seems.

“Here, quick!” Ki takes my arm again and points to a different escape as we skid to a halt. This one is a tiny cave mouth, dank and dark. Before I can argue she shimmies into it. I watch as her black hair is the last thing to be swallowed up by the darkness, and I glance again at the welcoming golden light through the trees ahead.

“Whatever you see up there, it isn’t real,” she calls from the cave. “Don’t trust it!”

With the darkness creeping ever closer, I’m close to panic. I can’t let it reach me, but my instinct screams at me not to trust Ki, even though she isn’t who she used to be. The golden light seems the best choice, but it’s too obvious. She’s right. It’s probably a trap. Tendrils of the darkness lick toward me as it nears. There’s little time to think. I dive into the cave mouth and I’m instantly assaulted by bright light.

It’s as though I’ve emerged in the midst of a deep blue summer sky. I cover my eyes as the effect makes them water and burn.

“Step in a little closer,” she whispers. When I do, the light dims.

“What—?” I start, but she hushes me. She’s pressed against the rocky wall of the cave. At her throat, a dainty blue stone shines brightly. It casts a beam of light across to the opposite wall where the cave mouth we just passed through stands gaping. The light from her necklace cascades like a waterfall over it, concealing us from the outside. I’m reminded of my own necklace and Flitt, and my heart aches with remorse and fear. How could I have lost it again? Is Flitt safe? Ki’s wide eyes are fixed on on the blue wall, her finger pressed to her lips. I turn and watch. Beyond the wall, I can see the darkness creeping. Even though it’s formless, I get the sense of a man within it. Someone powerful and dangerous. Someone not to be trifled with.

Ki steps closer, placing herself between me and the darkness as it creeps past the cave mouth. Her bow is loaded, pointed at the glowing wall. To me it feels pointless. I doubt an arrow would do anything at all to the powerful force searching for us. Still, I find myself wishing for my sword again as it pauses at the cave mouth. I don’t like feeling defenseless.

For what seems like hours we stand motionless, pressed against the cold stone, silently on edge as we wait for darkness to pass. When it finally does and sunlight begins to splash and pool against the light from her necklace, Ki turns to me.

“Dawn,” she says. “I’ll be waking soon.” She brushes the stone at her throat with her fingertips and the wall of light that blocks the opening fades away.

“Wait, you’re dreaming? You’re not really here?” I ask her. She seemed solid when she touched me before. It’s all very confusing.

“I am. I’m here, and I’m dreaming. Aren’t you?”

“No,” I frown and look down at my strange red gown. “I don’t know. When I woke in the tavern, I was in my armor. I watched myself fade away. And now I’m here, dressed this way, and all of my things are gone. But if I’m not there, if I watched myself disappear…” I press my fingertips to my brow. “I don’t understand.”

“Confusion is a way of life here in the dreaming.” Ki slides her arrow back into the sheath at her hip and pushes her long, loose hair over her shoulder.

“They said I was in both places,” I sink back against the wall. “They said it was clever of me.”

“Who did?” she creeps close to the opening and looks out cautiously.

“The little ones. I think they were fairies once.” I answer and follow her gaze. It’s bright and cheerful outside now. The threat is gone.

“The fallen, from Sunteri?” she asks. She turns to me and I catch the sadness in her eyes before she looks away again.

“You know them?” I ask. She nods. “Where did they go?”

“Into hiding. They fear him. The darkness. I imagine it’s even more frightening to them than it is to us. I can’t know for certain, though. They won’t speak to me. They fear me, too.”

“Oh,” I frown. It makes sense that they wouldn’t trust her. I was a witness to Viala’s cruelty to Flit and the other fairies she encountered. Still, I have to remind myself that this is Ki, not Viala. Viala is gone. “Why are you here?”

“Nightmares,” she looks away. “Iren says they’re of a time long past, but still they punish me. Things I did. People I forsook. In waking they’re forgotten, but in Dreaming, they plague me. He plagues me.” She lifts her chin toward the outside. “Dreamwalker.”

“Who is he?” I ask.

“Someone wicked. Someone who wants to cause pain. He’s so consumed by his own darkness that he wants nothing else but to inflict it on others and watch them suffer.”

“But who is he, really?”

“I don’t know.” She closes her fingers around the stone necklace. “I wish I did. I’ve been trying to figure it out, but I can’t get close enough to him. Iren tells me if I’m discovered here, it could destroy me. My fealty is to the Crag, so I have to tread carefully in this place. I’m learning how to keep myself hidden from him and watch. To gather information for Iren and Kythshire.” She tips her head to the side, as if listening for something. “I’m waking now. Be safe, Lady Azaeli. Travel only by day. Iren says the border is open to you if you seek it.”

“Can’t I go with you?” I ask her. “You could guide me, couldn’t you? To Kythshire?”

“I wish I could, but it doesn’t work like that. Our paths can cross in Dreaming, but we have to find our own way out. Your way is different than mine. I’m sorry. I’ll seek you out tonight, if you’re still here. Good-bye.” She fades slowly away, leaving me alone in the cave.

My first thought is to try to get to Kythshire through the Half-Realm. It’s easy enough to do it in waking, and so I imagine it will be just as easy in Dreaming. I start to doubt myself, though, when I begin. Rian is usually the one to lift the Revealer and settle us completely into the Half-Realm. I wish I knew how he pulled us back in so easily.

Come to think of it, now that I’m without him, I wish I knew many of the things Rian knows. His shield wards would be useful here, as would his offensive spells. We could survive together without my armor and my sword because of his magic. He has a spell of direction that would certainly guide me to Kythshire. The more I think about it, the more my heart aches for him. I need him by my side. We belong together.

“Rian,” I whisper and I wait, half-expecting him to come to me somehow. He doesn’t, though. No one does. The cave is damp and cold, and the darkness reminds me of the Dreamwalker. I squeeze myself out into the sunlight with no regard for the delicate fabric of my gown that catches and tears on the jagged rocks. When I emerge, I gasp in wonder at the sight that greets me.

A sunlit meadow stretches out from the mouth of the cave, sprinkled with flowers of red, orange, yellow, and purple. The trees, so close and ominous last night are wondrous in the daylight. The scene is so vibrant and lush that I can almost taste the color on my tongue. I’m greeted by a flock of blue and gold finches that dive and rise playfully before they settle in the flowers to drink their nectar. Their song fills the air around me, lifting my spirits and urging me forward, away from the cave. I close my eyes and drink in the lovely scent of blossoms kissed by sunlight as the soft breeze plays in my hair. Out here, Kythshire seems possible. Anything does.