Part 7: Into That Good Night

"Bes breath or breathless, sneaksies? The black wood claims you either way!"

Was I breathing? No, I didn't have the urge to take a breath. Something in the darkness told me I didn't need to anymore.

"He is breathless, and he is mine."

"Not fair! The black wood would haves him!"

Those voices were unfamiliar to me: A high-pitched shrill and a firm feminine lilt. Why couldn't I see where they were coming from?

"He belongs to me, wretch. Flee back to your scarlet mistress or I will kill you for touching him."

"Hghhhhh! You will regret this! The black wood will haves him and you will regret!"

The voices were gone. I only wondered about them briefly. Something told me they didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore. I had found my way to the appeasing darkness and could stay there as long as I wanted. There was no need to see or hear. I belonged to the darkness and it welcomed me like it had tried to so many times in the past.

No. I couldn't stay here. I never meant to go to the darkness. I wanted to taste again. To breathe fresh air and see moonlight bathe the world in its calm reveal. To touch the corners on a well-cut diamond. To hear the churn of the old clock's gears and know when it needed me.

There was something else I needed to do. A scream pierced the darkness and pushed me towards the here and now. It was a child's scream. Children were being slaughtered. I remember now: There was a monster in The City and I had to destroy it. I couldn't accept the comfort of the darkest night, not as long as that monster was still around.

My ears were drawn to the sound of humming and my eyes focused on a dull light that gathered in the darkness. It wavered like a campfire. No, it was a campfire, perfectly made in the small clearing in front of me. A shadow was crouched near the fire: The figure of a woman, but her back was to me so I couldn't make out her features.

We were surrounded by trees. I could move my eyes upward to see them but couldn't move anything else. Some of the trees had pairs of sunken holes that turned in my direction. Why wasn't I able to move? I told the darkness I wasn't ready.

The humming stopped. "So you said no to the darkness after all. Good." That firm feminine lilt. One of the voices I had heard earlier belonged to this woman. "Then again, I doubt I would have been drawn to you if you were the type to give in to that long, endless night."

She turned from the fire and stood so that its light could show me her features. Everything about her was... strangely perfect. Grown out of green wood, yet even the veins and vines that etched along her curves were complimentary. Completely comfortable in her own skin, she stood in front of me with nothing but the odd shadow to provide a little modesty. Once my eyes adjusted, there was nothing between them and her body but the distance.

I had never seen a woman that kept my gaze for so long. Then again, I had also never seen a woman who was made out of plants. She approached me and knelt down to reach my level. I must have been sitting on the ground but I couldn't see my legs or feel what was beneath me. I couldn't tilt my head at all.

"Same name. Same interesting profession, but a different soul, heart and eyes..." Her fingers brushed the side of my face, an action that seemed to restore my sense of touch. I could feel the bark of the tree I must have been sitting against, and the vines that pinned me to that tree by my forehead, neck and torso. I struggled for a fraction of a second before my bonds constricted to keep me still.

"Be calm, Garrett. I have not brought you here to cause you any harm."

"Who are you?" My words were distorted by the echo of my voice which seemed to travel beyond the trees. I had to concentrate to repeat myself and keep the sound localized.

She smiled and withdrew her hand. "Of course. You are not him; therefore, you do not know me. I am Viktoria, Lady of the Woods, and I have much need of you, my good thief."

The Lady of the Woods... I had read a children's poem about her once. Something about her being a fierce protector of the 'Woodsie folk'... and an immeasurable beauty. I could agree with the latter of that statement, though I was still a little uncomfortable about being this close to her, especially since I was tied down.

My comfort was further challenged by a bright light that entered the corner of my left eye. I wasn't bothered by the light of the campfire but this new light threatened to renew my migraine. I needed to get away from it. I struggled again but the vines reminded me that they were there.

"Let him go, Wood Witch!" A man's voice emerged from the light. I couldn't look at it directly but I could see its reflection in Viktoria's eyes—until her eyes filled with a red glow symbolic of her outrage. That unmatched beauty quickly scaled over with brown bark and brier thorns as she stood to face the newcomer. Her voice became shrill and distorted, similar to the other voice I'd heard in the darkness.

"Manfools do not command the likes of me here!"

"He doesn't belong here and you know it! If he stays here, what you need him for—what we all need him for—will not happen."

I didn't realize I was so popular in a place I had never been before. Viktoria's fingers had grown into sharp wooden pikes and she massaged the air with them while deciding whether or not she was going to use them against the man I couldn't see. Then she slashed her claws in my direction. I thought she had cut me into four separate pieces in a single stroke; instead, the vines that held me in place dropped into shreds.

"Takes him and begone, manflesh," she hissed and retreated into the shadows of the wood. "But mark that I will comes for him again."

I would have watched her leave but I was compelled to shield my eyes from the light that approached. "Mind turning that down? It's really blinding."

"Hold on." After a moment, the light dimmed enough that I was able to look in his direction. He wore a long cloak that concealed everything but his arms, which were busy manipulating the lantern he held. The light of the lantern wasn't coming from a flame on the inside, though. There were symbols written on three of its sides that glowed with a white intensity brighter than any lamp I'd seen.

The stranger took a pen-sized crystal from hiding and etched a different symbol on the lantern's bare face. It lit up as brightly as it did before, only this time I didn't feel repulsed by it. "I'm sorry for that. Spirit guards don't allow me to select who they effect. Now come on, we have to go."

He turned back the way he came but I only stood up to be at his level. "Go where? Who are you? What do you need me for?"

"We don't have time for this, Garrett." He called to me over his shoulder and kept moving. "Keep up. You don't want to be out of the lamp light for too long."

I stood my ground. "There are too many people here who know my name while I don't know a thing about what's going on." I was too irritated to control the distorted echo of my voice. "I'm not going anywhere until I get some answers, so you better make time."

The light marched back in my direction as the hooded figure returned to the clearing. He stood within arm's reach of me and when he held the lantern between us, his scowl became familiar. It was the man I saw in the library ruins. "Look around you, Garrett. Or better yet, look down at your feet."

I didn't like to be told what to do by strangers but there was no harm in looking down—or so I thought. I almost stumbled when I saw what he wanted me to see. In the grass below me, there were footprints where I stood but my feet weren't there at all. The legs of my leathers faded into view just above the knee, and even then they were transparent. I held up my hands and could see him straight through the palms of my gloves.

"You're no longer in The City. Not even on the outskirts. You're in the Maw of Chaos, and we have got to get you out of here before it's too late."

This time when he turned to walk away I was right on his heels. "Am I dead?"

"For now, yes. Which is why we have to hurry."

That explained why I hadn't felt the need to breathe despite all the talking. Why I hadn't felt hungry or thirsty... Or sick. Or weak. I suddenly realized that I was thinking clearer than I had in days. The witch's stone freed me from the curse of madness by casting me into the Maw of Chaos. I should have known that a magical trinket couldn't be trusted to help me without a bad outcome... The Queen of Beggars should have known. She had to have known. How could she do this to me?

The stranger spoke up as if he could hear my thoughts. "She knew this would happen, you know. That's why she sent me here. She could see in your eyes that the corruption in the hag's lair had a powerful affect on your reason."

I frowned and stopped walking. "She seems to have a lot of knowledge for such a lack of action. The Queen of Beggars sent you here because she knew the stone would kill me."

He gained a few steps on me while I waited for his confirmation. When he turned to face me, there was a look in his eyes that said he didn't want to say what he was going to. "Yes, but it was a risk she had to take. You needed to open yourself up to the witch's stone and take its primal power, Garrett. You won't be able to take on the hag without it."

There was a lot happening to me lately that I didn't believe in. The primal enhanced my natural abilities and made it possible for me to reverse curses on people I cared about. I'd been cursed multiple times and cured just as many. Even now, I was walking around as a ghost—a real one, not just the lifestyle I preferred to lead. Being told that the Queen of Beggars risked my death for her own purposes topped them all in the realm of the unacceptable. I suddenly found it very difficult to continue walking with her associate.

"Garrett, I know this is a lot for you to take in, but we have to keep going. We have to get you back to your body before it's too late."

I looked out across the wide field we were standing in. There was a green haze that concealed any semblance of sky but the rolling grass was peaceful and inviting. I could sense something telling me that it was okay for me to stay here; that I wouldn't have to be concerned with The City, or with people I thought I knew risking my life for their own gain. My gaze swept the field and landed on a distant figure in red that stood at the edge of a forest so dark it seemed like a shadow of the other trees that were closest to it. The assurance was coming from that figure's direction. I almost stepped towards it, but then a sound drew my attention in another direction.

There was laughter coming from a different forest bathed in dull blue colors. A group of children came racing out from behind its trees—green and unclothed, just like Viktoria. These children belonged to the woods, and as they ran past me, they became the very flowers that spread their blossoms across the open field.

Their echoed laughter reminded me of another reason why I ended up in the Maw of Chaos. When I looked at the man with the lantern again, I was more certain that I needed to leave. "Lead the way."