Page 39 of Earthbound

Lettle and Alder exchanged an uneasy glance. ‘Not really,’ Alder said.

‘So, this was your home?’ Mia said, whistling low as she turned around the small cave.

Home. It didn’t feel like it. He felt nothing of what it felt like to be in Caperly or with the Nomads.

‘Mortah definitely meant here, right?’ Mia asked.

‘Yes, I did,’ Mortah replied as she entered. She looked more haggard than she had by the lake, and he knew she’d likely had to cross the smog of her own memories to reach the cave’s entrance.

‘We found you sitting right here, in the middle of the cave, surrounded by obeah,’ she said.

‘Was he holding a book?’ Lettle asked. ‘One that looked like this?’

Mortah frowned. ‘No, nothing.’

‘Are you sure?’ Lettle said, pushing the grimoire into Mortah’s hands.

The Nomad ran her fingers along the spine and shuddered. ‘No, definitely not. I’d recognise a book bound in skin.’

Lettle’s mouth hung agape. ‘Skin?’

Alder took a closer look at the grimoire. He hadn’t realised, but now he scrutinised it, he noticed the tell-tale signs of stretched skin.

‘What type of skin?’ Lettle asked with horror.

‘Something larger than a sheep,’ Mortah said, a dryness to her tone. ‘Just look at the pores.’

Lettle placed the grimoire gingerly back into her bag. ‘I wish I didn’t know that.’

A droplet of water fell from the ceiling and rippled out across the shallow pool of water in the middle of the cave.

Was that the only way to quench my thirst? What did I eat?

Beyond the wood sorrel and moss, nothing could grow in such darkness.

The fraedia light did not reach the end of the cave. ‘The obeah must have gone somewhere. I’m going deeper,’ Alder said, more to encourage himself than anything else.

‘I’m coming too,’ Lettle said, matching his stride as he edged around the pool of water.

Twenty paces in and they had to walk single file. Another ten and the walls had closed so tightly around them they had to inch sideways.

‘The obeah’s horns would not have fit down here,’ Lettle said. She sounded on the verge of panic. Strangely, the rock pressing against his chest and back was soothing to Alder. He paused, resting his head on the damp stone.

It was getting easier to recall the memory–though it was still singular. The tightness around his waist always came first, and this time, he followed the pull of the rope.

‘No, it’s not this way, we need to go back.’ He let his senses lead him as they returned to the others.

He could feel Lettle watching him, waiting for some big reveal. But again, there came a point when the memory cut out as sharply as though it had been cleaved away.

‘I fall, the book falls next to me, then nothing.’ He shrugged, embarrassed by his failure.

Lettle lowered herself down to the ground. ‘You said you fell here?’ She pointed to the water.

‘Careful, it may look shallow, but caves around here hide pockets of water that could immerse you twice over,’ Mortah said.

But Lettle simply splayed her hand over the pool, proving its shallowness.

‘That’s odd,’ Mortah said, crouching down next to her.