Page 41 of Earthbound

‘Don’t start, this is serious. It was obviously her fourth fall–she could be injured, drowning even.’

‘Exactly, we’ve no idea where the pool leads,’ Dart replied.

Alder hugged his shaking knees to his chest. This was all too much.

There was a sound at the cave entrance and they all turned to see an obeah run towards the water. In one leap, the obeah plunged into the pool after Lettle, but not before Alder noticed its broken horn.

Ajax.

‘That is the king’s obeah,’ he said with numb lips.

‘I have no idea what is happening here,’ Mortah said slowly. The oil she’d used for the torch must have been old, as it poured smoke as it burned. The haze it left only added to the hallucinatory nature of the moment.

Alder unwound his arms from around his legs and stood. He could not leave Lettle out of fear. No matter what was to come, he had to help her.

And so he ignored the warning in his gut and said, ‘If I’m not back in an hour, go home.’ Now he’d made the decision, his feet took him quickly to the pool’s edge.

‘Alder, wait!’

Alder didn’t hear Mia’s shout because his feet had already touched the water. There was no resistance into the pool’s depth. He slipped through like an eel through the shallows, barely disturbing the surface.

The water was so cold it burned his skin, and he gasped, releasing air from his lungs in a swirl of bubbles.

His body seemed to hold no buoyancy and he sank quickly. Though he’d never been able to master magesight, he opened his eyes as he fell. The pool was deeper than any of them could have imagined. Light emanated from the fraedia somewhere below and it lit up the ground beneath him. He found himself looking into yet another pool. He knew it didn’t make sense, but the bottom shimmered like a body of water and through it he could see Lettle sprawled across the floor.

The mirage is like a bubble, separating me from Lettle, he realised. As he sank closer to its surface something akin to muscle memory triggered in his mind, and he felt himself call to the stone below.

Come to me, his mind whispered, and the earth responded.

A deep rumble permeated his chest, releasing the last of his breath, as stone steps grew out of the ground to meet him.

His feet landed nimbly onto the first step. The next would break the surface of the bubble.

There was no more hesitating. His body was beginning to panic from the lack of air and he had to fight his body from breathing in the water.

He had no choice–he stepped through the pool into the beyond.

This time, the transition was not gentle. As his body moved from water to air, it felt as though his mind tore in two.

The fabric of who he was began to unravel, remaking anew a tapestry he would no longer recognise.

And as his body struck the ground next to Lettle, Alder was no more.

Chapter Nine

Rayan

As soon as the fire was doused, Rayan retired to the palace. He had no intention of partaking in the activities of the night. His heart beat for one person alone and he wasn’t sure he’d ever enjoy the touch of another.

So I must accept I am alone for the rest of my life.

Not alone, Ajax reminded him.

The obeah was somewhere north-east.

Not alone, Rayan agreed. He missed the obeah, but he was needed exactly where he was–following Lettle.

Rayan hadn’t told anyone that he’d asked Ajax to keep on her trail; he knew Furi wouldn’t approve. She’d noticed the obeah’s absence but he’d brushed it off time and time again.