Endure (32 page)

“Well no, but what if there are things down there? Slimy things…” Rayna shuddered at whatever image had formed in her mind.

“Only one way to find out.” I ran the last few steps and jumped forward, diving into the purple liquid.

The water felt warm as it glided over my skin. When I opened my eyes, my vision wasn’t blurry, nor did the water seem to hurt my eyes. The liquid carried a magic of its own, allowing me to breathe with ease while illuminating the way. Water and bubbles foamed beside me as Rayna jumped in; when the bubbles cleared, I took in the lake below.

The bottom was a sandy red that extended evenly for as far as I could see. Yellow, blue, and green plants stretched up from the sandy base and swayed in the water as a liquid breeze pushed them back and forth. The rocky wall beside us sloped down with jagged pieces of stone jutting from it and forty feet across was the base of the mountain.

Molten lava had coiled down into the water, cooling and hardening into a swirling design. It coiled into itself and had stiffened with small pocket-like holes covering its outside. So far I couldn’t see fish or any type of creatures swimming in the water, and that eased at least one tension that had ripened in my gut.

The bottom of the lake was twenty feet from the surface and a large stone archway jutted randomly out of the sand. Initially, it reminded me of my first time in Drakar when Tiki led me into a lake and through a similar archway. That door had taken me from water to land in a matter of inches. I had stepped out onto the rocky path of the market and my journey to stop Riley had truly begun. As I looked on across the lake, however, this wasn’t the only arch. Every few feet stood another arch in the sand, each of them facing different directions. I turned to Rayna who seemed to be confused by her ability to breathe under the water. When she’d grown comfortable, she pointed at all the arches and then to the surface, kicking her legs to propel her upward.

When my head broke through the water, the clear sky had changed. Dark clouds rolled in from the horizon. They bubbled and expanded with each passing breath. Although the thunder was too distant to hear, flashes of lightning crackled inside the clouds. Déjà vu rocked my body and nervousness pressed my skin.

“That’s a lot of doorways,” Rayna said.

I spit some water from my mouth as it slipped between my lips. I stared into the clouds and nodded. “And I don’t like whatever’s happening up there.”

Rayna stared up at the rolling clouds and a shiver ran through me.

No! He’s getting close.

He cannot do this. He is weak.

We must take over before it’s too late.

A splitting pain cut across my mind and my head snapped forward. My face disappeared beneath into the water and I gasped for air, the pain stealing my breath.

“Hey, what’s the matter?” Rayna treaded water but she reached out and touched my arm. Her magic pushed through and helped clear my mind.

“We’re running out of time,” I said.

Concern covered Rayna’s face, but it deepened as the lines around her eyes and forehead creased. “Then we better get started.”

Rayna slid through the water with ease, pulling herself down to the first archway. Through the archway I could see the lake on the other side. The plant life continued to sway and everything seemed calm, but the moment Rayna pushed her head between the stones, it vanished. I’d never seen it from this perspective before and her headless form floated out of the doorway, giving me an unsettling feeling.

When her face came back into view, Rayna shook her head and swam toward the next arch. The water rolled over my face and body as I swam, stopping next to another doorway. The stone was smooth and hard to grip, but I managed to get a hold on the rock. I kicked my feet and pulled myself forward, letting my head go through the door.

A tickling sensation ran over my face as it crossed the threshold, and then there was nothing but cold. Sharp winds cut against my face like frozen shards and the air nearly burned my skin. There was a flurry of snow covering the ground, and visibility was almost zero. All I could see was a grey mist that lingered in the storm.

I pulled my head back into the lake. The water hurt as it warmed my skin and a shiver ran through my body. Rayna shook her head at one archway and swam past me toward another.

We spent an hour moving from archway to archway across the bottom of the lake. As we rounded the mountain and the next section of lake came into view, the number of doorways multiplied. There were dozens of doorways every few feet and we were immediately overwhelmed. There had to be an easier way. I floated weightlessly in the water, closing my eyes and repeating the scroll’s translation in my mind.

*

Fire spills from rocky peaks, its base a ceiling for dower

Confined within are vessels of purity, around a crypt for the highest power

Wakes of purple roll above, below a key to fate

Which arch shall close the Circle of Light and create a pact that cannot break

*

This wasn’t right; we were missing something. I waved Rayna up and we both floated to the surface. The wind had picked up, but it was still warm compared to some of the places I’d just seen. The water became rough, peaks of white rapids splashing around me. I kept my legs and arms moving and my head above water, spitting out mouthfuls as they sloshed into my mouth.

“This is ridiculous.” Rayna pulled her hair back with her hands, water streaking down her face.

“Tiki said he didn’t know the last word—
straticalla
. That has to be the key.”

“
Ca
means
below
. We know it’s below the surface of the water, and we know one of the archways is the door, but which door?”

Rayna stared at me, lost in thought. The wind picked up and the clouds rolled on the air, but the thunder still couldn’t be heard between arcs of lightning.

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

“What if the archway isn’t the door? What if they’re all just decoys?”

“Seems like a lot of trouble to go to, don’t you think?”

“Maybe that’s the point. The first line of the scroll makes me question the rest of it. “‘Fire spills from rocky peaks, its base a ceiling for dower.’ The top of the mountain is where fire spills, so the base of it would be the ceiling. If the base is the ceiling, then whatever we want is below the mountain. In that case, the archways have nothing to do with where we need to be.”

I studied Rayna’s face while replaying the words in my head. “Okay…say that’s right, then how do we get below the mountain?”

“How can we breathe underwater?” Rayna smirked. “Magic.” And then she was gone.

I took a moment to look at the world around me. Magic. It was everywhere. It formed the blades of red and blue grass, the green sky, colored suns and pale moons. It created creatures that only nightmares could form, and made them civil and terrifying all at once. It made friendship a possibility, it made pain a constant in so many lives, and yet it allowed us to live. Magic let us come to life in these worlds and experience them. The pain, the sacrifice, the journey, it was all because of magic, and no matter how bad things could get, you would fight every second of every day for just one more moment of it.

The thunder came loud and fierce as though the gods themselves grumbled above. Sheet lightning flashed in the gray bubbles that rolled and churned, making them look animated. But it wasn’t fake. A storm was coming, both physically and emotionally. There would be thunder, rain, and hail. The arms of Mother Nature would reach out and slash those in her way. We would have to fight to keep the magic, we would have to fight to stay alive, and we would have to endure the storm.

A jagged spear of light tore from the clouds, striking the earth in the distance, and then came the rain. Small pellets slapped the water and in moments, the lake was being hit so hard it looked like it was boiling. Splashes of water rolled over one another while waves coiled fiercely against the increasing winds. Colorful leaves of a distant forest fluttered into the air, the wind tearing them from their branches.

The ground rumbled, angry and fierce, causing panic to spread in my loins. Grey pools of smoke floated out of the volcano and the wind tore them away. The ground shook again and I waited for black soot to shoot from the mountain, but it never came. The panic settled as I realized the volcano wasn’t shaking the ground, Rayna was.

I dove into the lake, swimming hard and fast to reach the bottom. Rayna floated a few feet from the base of the mountain, her magic tearing holes into the lake’s floor. Her power reverberated through the water, the earth shook, and rocks and clay burst through the sandy bottom with tails of white rippling behind them

She glanced up at me, threw her magic forward and another assault of rocks and sand broke away, but still nothing. Rayna pulled her magic back as I approached, frustration painting her face.

They’re getting closer.

Someone get inside him; do not let him destroy us!

Leave him!
a voice commanded
. He will not destroy us; he will save us and the creatures we bore. The Protector will save everything we created and once held true.

Something shifted inside me and pain rocked my mind. A flare of heat exploded inside me and the pain vanished. I could see everything around me, but I had lost complete control of my body once again. I panicked, fighting hard and fast to reach into my soul, but whoever had taken over was working as fast as I was.

Without my command, magic coiled through my veins and my body swam toward Rayna. Something had taken me over, and with a single glance, she knew something wasn’t right. She pushed off the lake bottom and swam in the other direction.

Fire and ice cut the through me as the untrained spirit forced them into my chest. I tried to remain calm, searching for the soul that clung to mine. When I found it I pulled, but it resisted with an unmatched force. I swam forward and Rayna’s arms moved frantically back and forth, speeding ahead. My power surged and my arms and legs kicked harder. The fire and ice faded and the earth element rose. It was rough and painful as the magic rolled up my torso and I screamed inside my own mind.

The scream didn’t seem to distract the god that possessed me. It moved faster after Rayna until suddenly it stopped, breaking away from the chase and turning toward an archway. It stood near the base of the mountain looking as weathered, if not more, than the others.

The power is in the words.
The voice whispered through my mind. “
Straticalla
!” Water bubbled from my mouth and the voice that came was a man’s, but it was not my own.

I fought back trying to tear it from my soul, but it wouldn’t budge. My arms stretched out and the magic pooled in my palms. A green glow formed over each of my hands and stretched toward the arch. The energy was powerful, floating left and right, almost out of the spirit’s control. When it reached the archway, it wrapped around each post like a vine until they met at the top. In the curve of the stone a word formed, engraved as though it had always been there. The word
Straticalla
was molded into the arch, and the magic intensified, seeping into the word and making it glow.

Straticalla
, the voice said again.
Illuminate your path, for magic leads the way you seek
.
Below the door are answers to a secret you must now keep.

I didn’t need to pull it back. The voice vanished and the soul broke away, disappearing into the swarm of souls inside me. The image around me grew hazy and when it cleared, control of my body returned. Rayna treaded water a few dozen feet away, her eyes wide and focused. But before either of us could move, the light on the archway flared, sending a ripple of heat through the water, and then it was gone.

The earth shook and sand clouded the water. Cracks formed around the stone arch and it turned counterclockwise. Lifting from the ground like a screw, it rose higher in the lake, a pillar of earth pushing it up. Roots jutted out of the column, swaying in the water, and before long, the archway was above the surface.

A sheet of light flashed above, followed by a crackle of thunder. It came with a deafening crash and another blaze lit up the entire lake like a spotlight. Bright magic danced around the earthy column, spiraling downward, jumping and moving like a living force. When the lightning reached the base, earth exploded. Chunks of rock and spears of hardened sand sailed through the water. They whistled past me in a trail of white bubbles and when the debris cleared, a hole had torn away from the base of the column, and a new stone archway had been revealed.

Rayna swam toward me, both of us cringing at the next crackle of thunder. My entire body tensed and we both froze, staring at the doorway. Just beyond that arch laid the key to finishing the rite. The power to stop Riley was within reach, and the thought of the end didn’t excite me like I’d hoped. It didn’t fill me with determination and satisfaction. It scared me. The end
was
coming. I was left to hope that whatever lay beyond that door really did give me the power to stop a god.