Author's Note: Here's the second part of the "Christmas Special." Another reason I'm doing this is because I'm going to be out of town next week, so I won't be able to update at my usual time. Happy Holidays!
Chapter Ten – Light
When Ico and Yorda passed through the statue-doors at the top of the stairs in the grassy courtyard, they found themselves in another courtyard with high walls and a long flight of stone steps leaning against the right wall. The steps were tall and narrow, and before long Ico was panting. When at last they reached the top of the stairs, he had to shield his eyes from the glare of the sun that momentarily blinded him as it bounced off the stones all around. To their left, the castle dropped off to the sea far below, and to the right it rose up far above their heads. Directly in front of them was a deep pit descending into absolute darkness. Ico shaded his eyes with his hand and squinted across the gap, where he thought he could see a ledge leading to another set of statue-doors. But how to get across?
Ico let go of Yorda's hand and paced up and down the edge of the deep pit, thinking hard and looking at their surroundings carefully. Casting his gaze about, he could see there was a small ledge running along the wall to the right that he thought he could fit on, but Yorda would never make it even if he managed to explain to her what to do. Under that ledge, he noticed a small wooden platform jutting out from the stones before him, attached to a groove running along the right wall. He could see no way to use this, so he decided to go across on the ledge. "Stay there," he told Yorda, gesturing to reinforce his meaning, and carefully inched himself onto the narrow ledge.
Almost immediately, Ico was snatched by an overwhelming sense of vertigo, and he pressed his face against the wall. Biting his lip to keep down his fear, he cautiously inched sideways, facing the wall and screwing up his eyes so he wouldn't have to look down. There was one heart-stopping moment when his foot slipped off the ledge, but he quickly regained his balance and made it to the far side safely. Jumping down from the ledge, Ico saw that there was indeed another set of statue-doors on this side of the pit. A chain hung down the wall, stopping just above the narrow ledge he had come across on. Ico reached up and began to climb this chain, his feet swinging below him as he climbed.
He pulled himself over the edge of the small balcony the chain was attached to, and paused a moment to catch his breath. From this even higher vantage point, he could see for miles out to sea, and the forested cliffs that surrounded the bay. How he wished he could reach them... Ico tore his wistful gaze away from the horizon and looked about the balcony he had climbed onto. It was very small; the only thing on it was a lever on the wall that rose up still higher above Ico's head. He pulled it and heard a distant clank and clatter, then looked over the side and saw the little wooden platform inching across the pit. Yorda stood on it, looking down with obvious astonishment at the boards moving beneath her feet. When it bumped against the other side, she hurried onto the solid stones.
Ico gasped as he watched a black shadow portal open in a corner beside Yorda and several spirits pull themselves out. Ico didn't wait any longer; he threw himself down the chain, climbing down as fast as his arms would move. When he was several feet from the ground, he dropped down from the chain, staggering as he landed on his feet. The spirits were advancing on Yorda, who had retreated to the corner opposite from the spirit portal. Ico charged at the spirits with a yell, swinging his stick back and forth. They scattered before his fury, allowing him to take Yorda's hand again. "Come on!" Ico cried, pulling on his frightened friend's hand. He pushed her in front of the statue-doors, and the white magic pouring from her chest finished off the remaining spirits. Ico grabbed Yorda's hand and led the way through the door. It wasn't a comforting thought, but he was beginning to get used to the routine of spirit attacks.
The two friends found themselves on a balcony that spanned a large courtyard. Ico looked over the railing at the ground far below, and thought the courtyard looked familiar. He remembered the mighty battle that had taken place there, the spirits converging on him and Yorda in greater numbers than ever before. Ico shuddered as he remembered that battle, and all the pain he had felt before Yorda's magic had healed him. He gripped his friend's hand tighter and hurried across the balcony, to another set of statue-doors.
When they stepped through this door, they saw that they stood on a long parapet that ran the length of the courtyard with the front gate, where they had met the queen. At the end of the courtyard, the parapet turned at a sharp angle to the left, running a ways until it terminated in a tower that sat on a separate island from the castle. As they walked along the parapet, Ico looked down over the wall to the courtyard below. He remembered when they had stood before the gate this morning (had it really been only a few hours ago?), and shivered again as he thought of how the queen must even now be watching them. She could appear at any moment, preventing them from escape as easily as she had done before... Ico sped up, hurrying towards the tower at the end of the long parapet.
When at last they reached the tower, they found the door leading into it blocked by more statues. The white magic poured from Yorda, and as soon as the statues had begun to separate, she rushed through. Reminded strongly of the time she had run through the door to the gate, Ico hurried after her into the tower, wondering again at her sporadic bursts of initiative.
They had come into a large, high-ceilinged room made of mossy, crumbling stone like the majority of the castle. Set deep into the wall opposite them was a huge circle made of either rusted metal or dark stone, he couldn't tell which. A thin crack ran in a straight line right down the middle of it, which made Ico think it had to be a door or window of some kind. But a door for giants! he thought in awe. Turning from this strange sight, he took in the rest of the large, bare room. He turned around, and above the door they had just entered was another huge circle just like the first, aligned so they faced each other. In the far right corner of the room was a blackened doorway.
Ico turned to Yorda and took her hand. His fingers twitched as he felt the brush of power against his skin, and he led Yorda through the doorway to the room beyond. This second room was darker than the first, and Ico barely saw the floor dropping away before he could stop. The floor dipped down sharply several feet, but there was a ladder against the side of the drop. When Ico reached the bottom, he found his eyes were more accustomed to the gloom. He could see the other side of the gigantic circle door looming up above him, and the room extending off to his right. It was hard to tell in this dim light, but he thought he saw a third circle door in the far wall of the room.
Directly before him, however, was a round stone dais raised slightly above the floor. It was small; it looked just wide enough for two people to stand on. Curious as to what purpose it served, Ico hoisted himself up on the top of it. He felt the rough stone with his hands as he pulled himself up, and thought it felt as though a circle had been carved around the edge of the dais. Ico straightened up, looking around the room from his new vantage point, and then noticed that Yorda was struggling up to join him. He grasped her hand and helped her the rest of the way, and as soon as her feet touched the stone, the circle around the edge glowed the same bluish-white that all the statue-doors did when they opened.
Ico suddenly cried out, wobbling and nearly losing his balance, for the dais abruptly lowered into the ground with a jerk. The floor leading up to the third circle door glowed blue-white, revealing symbols carved deeply into the stone, grouped into rectangles. One by one, each rectangle rose a bit off the floor, each one rising a little higher than the last, creating a series of shallow steps right up to the circle door. The glow faded away, and with it went what little warmth the room contained. Ico caught his breath as he heard the unearthly moan coming from the very stones of the castle. "The spirits!" he hissed in fear.
Before the shadowy wraiths had time to materialize out of the portals hidden in the darkest corners of the room, the horned boy grabbed Yorda and raced for the other side of the room. Without the glow, he couldn't see the steps, so he tripped on the first one and stumbled on the others, but there was no time to be more careful. He didn't care that the bare toes in his sandals were getting bruised and bloody; indeed, he hardly noticed. When they finally reached the far side of the room, he groped around desperately for a door, anything he could do to bring some light into the room. He could hear the spirits hastening towards them, but they blended in so well with the gloom all around that he couldn't tell where they were.
Ico's hands met nothing but the cold stones of the wall, and after several moments of panicked groping, he felt a sudden tug on his arm. Yorda's bright luminescence was all he could see in the darkness, but the shadows seemed to be tugging on her arm. Taking a wild guess, Ico swung his stick through the blackness that pressed around them, and heard a satisfying crack as his stick met its mark. He pressed his attack, but after several blows he found himself swinging into thin air. Letting out a warning yell, he lashed out in the opposite direction, hoping his weapon would happen to hit a stray spirit.
But when he did this, he felt a heavy blow across his back, and he was thrown to the floor, Yorda's hand slipping from his grasp. In horror, Ico jumped back onto his feet, whirling around to find Yorda suspended in midair, a white speck in the sea of darkness. Yelling like a madman, Ico tore down the steps in the wake of the spirit who held Yorda. When she was a foot from the ground, Ico swung his stick and struck the invisible spirit out of the air. Yorda fell onto the floor, and Ico continued to strike the spirit until he couldn't find it anymore.
Yorda gasped and backed away, staring fearfully into the shadows ahead of him, and Ico spun around, prepared to fight off more spirits. Before he could strike, however, a fleshless hand closed about his throat. It felt as insubstantial and harmless as smoke, but it had the strength of flesh and blood. The hand closed tighter and tighter about his windpipe, threatening to block out his air entirely. Choking and spluttering, Ico clawed at the spirit's hand, but it would not relent. In a final, desperate motion, he jabbed his stick backwards at the spirit. The pressure around his neck vanished instantly, and Ico fell to the floor, gasping for breath. But Yorda was backing away fearfully, and he knew there was no time to lose. Still gasping for breath, he struggled to his feet and charged after the spirit silhouetted against Yorda's glow. He felt the spirit fall back under his attack, until after several blows the icy chill left the air.
Ico wiped the sweat off his brow, realizing the portal must have disappeared. Taking Yorda's hand, he headed back to the end of the room, where he hoped he would be able to examine the circle door. Squinting up at it, Ico wondered if there was a way to open it. If his estimation was right, they were on the eastern side of the castle, on one of the islands flanking the main body of the keep. He wasn't about to get his hopes up too high, but maybe there would be a way to reach the cliffs and escape this castle once and for all.
Unable to see in the darkness, Ico tripped on the last shallow step. Throwing out a hand to catch himself, he bumped into a stick of some kind, which gave a grating sound and shifted under his weight as he leaned against it.
Just as he realized this was a lever, a sudden rumbling began beneath his feet and in his chest. The rumbling was all through the air, so potent he could almost feel the air shivering. Ico gasped and took a step back, for the great circle door had begun to open with a groan, the halves splitting apart and sliding back into the wall. Bright afternoon sunlight shone into the dark room - warm, cheerful. Yorda reached up her hands in a futile attempt to catch the motes of dust that were suddenly revealed in the light, dancing like a thousand glowing princesses.
Ico couldn't see very clearly through the blinding sunlight, but he could smell the invigorating, salty smell of the sea, and eagerly scrambled up onto the curved threshold of the circle door. He pulled Yorda up with him, and together they hopped down out of the door, which had already begun to grow warm with the sun's powerful rays. Stepping out of the beam of light, Ico looked around to find that they were indeed on the very edge of the tiny island the tower had been built upon. They stood on the very rim of the cliff itself; several hundred yards away the earth and stone dropped away to the water of the bay far, far below. The sea air, the cool breeze lifting his black hair, and the feel of overgrown grass falling over his bare toes filled Ico's small body with life, till he almost felt he could have soared on the wings of the wind to yonder cliffs and freedom...
Heaving a great sigh, Ico gazed wistfully and a little more sensibly at the forested cliffs. They were so close, yet still unreachable! Those far cliffs were filled with hope and promise, yet somehow they were depressing as well. They seemed to be mocking the two prisoners, laughing gleefully at their struggles. Just as the queen must be at this very moment... he thought.
Clenching his teeth, Ico wrenched his gaze away from the far-off cliffs and returned it to the one they were standing on. In the middle of the small space of earth and grass stood a strange structure, like a tall tree of iron, a bowl-shaped dish made of reflective metal perched on the top, perfectly aligned with the circle door they had just opened - and thus aligned with the other two circle doors as well. The sunlight hit the dish, which reflected it innumerable times within itself till it shot out towards the tower. And if we were to open the other two doors, it would shine through the tower...
Ico wasn't sure if that was what they wanted or not; this whole attempt at escape was nothing but stumbling blunders based on whim anyway. He had no idea what this strange contraption had been built for, but it might help them in their quest. So Ico called Yorda to him, helped her over the tall threshold again, and led her back across the room to the middle circle door. Examining it in the light coming in through the circle door, he saw a lever close to the bottom of the door, just like the first circle door. Feeling confident now, he pulled the lever.
This door opened just as the other one had, but as it jerked open Ico could have sworn he saw something long and shiny fall down from it, as though it had been stuck in the crack in the middle of the circle door. The bright sunlight extended into the large outer room. "C'mon," Ico muttered, and helped Yorda clamber over into the other room. As soon as his feet hit the floor, Ico examined the long shiny object that had fallen onto the ground. It was a sword made of simple, unadorned metal, but it still seemed to have a sharp edge despite the rust that covered the door it had been stuck in.
Just then Ico felt a stronger surge of Yorda's magic than usual, and looked up to find that she had shrunk fearfully against his side, her violet eyes open wide for once in genuine fear. Gripping the sword he had just picked up, Ico searched all around for spirits, but they were alone. Suddenly he realized the source of her fear: Bars had risen up from the floor all around them, shutting them inside. The same spikes stuck out around the top as had been around Yorda's cage.
Yorda's cage! No wonder Yorda was frightened; she was remembering her imprisonment atop that tower! Ico wondered how long she had been forced to stay up there, wondered if the queen had ever visited her. If she had, he wondered which had been worse - the times when the queen scolded or mocked her, or the times when Yorda was utterly alone for hours on end. Naturally, Ico couldn't ask her for the details, and he wasn't sure he would have even if they spoke the same language. Yorda was actually shaking, as though afraid that they would be caged there forever - as she very well might have been, had her horned rescuer not shown up.
"Don't worry," Ico said reassuringly, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I will get us out of here."
A quick glance around them revealed a pulley on either side of the circle door, the ropes pulled tight. Ico gently pulled himself away from Yorda's clutching fingers and strode over to one of the pulleys. It was easy to cut through the taught rope with his new sword. Nothing happened to the bars surrounding them, and Ico felt a twinge of worry. What if these pulleys weren't connected to the bars? He pushed that thought out of his mind and continued to the other pulley, cutting through the rope with the same ease. With a clattering crash, the bars fell back into the floor and they were free again.
For a minute Yorda looked as though she was going to cry, but then she turned to Ico instead and grasped his hand with both of hers. The shivering tingle that met his skin almost seemed giddy with relief. Yorda could not express the emotions swimming about in her eyes, but she held Ico's hand to her heart for several moments, gripping it tightly with both of her hands. Ico understood, and when she lowered his hand again he nodded once and squeezed her hand.
Ico looked over at the third and final circle door and crossed over to it, looking for the lever that would open it. When he found it, he tried to pry his fingers away from Yorda's hand, but she clutched it tightly, refusing to let go. With a sigh, he set his new sword against the wall and pulled the lever with his free hand, watching as the last circle door creaked open.
All of a sudden, the entire tower seemed to tremble with power. Ico nearly lost his footing, but he grabbed the wall just in time. He heard a strange fizzing, buzzing sound coming from outside the tower, and hurried out of the statue-doors to see what was happening. At the corner of the long parapet, towering over the main gate, was a large stone sphere that sat on a thin spire. Ico hadn't thought much of it before, but now it sat directly in the strong beam of sunlight coming from the tower, turning it the same bluish-white as Yorda's magic. The ball was rotating, and offshoots of excess white magic were flying into the sky.
Before Ico had time to wonder what its function was or whether he should be clapping his hands or groaning, he felt the dreaded chill in his bones. Then he did groan. Looking wildly over his shoulder, he saw ten angry spirits soaring over the tower behind them. Too late, Ico realized he had left his new sword back in the tower. He had no weapons, no means of protecting them. "Run!" Ico yelled, following his own advice and sprinting down the parapet, clutching Yorda's hand and tugging her along behind him.
They were angry at what he had done, he just knew it. Well, anything that made the spirits angry seemed like a good idea to him, but he still had the problem of facing ten spirits with no weapons beyond his own horns - and he wasn't sure how much good they would do. All he could do was run like the wind down the parapet. Why did it have to be so long? Ico skidded around the corner, nearly falling over into the courtyard below, and tore up the last bit. Yorda stumbled and panted alongside him, terror lending speed to her legs. The spirits were gaining; he could hear the ragged beating of their wings.
He could see the door at the end of the parapet that led into the courtyard in between the gate and the room with the chandeliers. Then he glanced to the right and saw a ladder he hadn't noticed before up against the side of the castle. As they raced down the last stretch of the parapet, the magic from the spinning sphere gathered at the top of the ladder, moving the stones aside to create a doorway. "Hurry!" Ico cried tersely to Yorda, hurrying up the ladder as fast as he could, hoping to stay ahead of the spirits somehow. Yorda followed his advice, even if she couldn't understand it. She knew that her own life could be at stake, and stayed close on Ico's heels. The spirits were nearly upon them when Ico reached the top, grabbed Yorda under the arms, and hurled both of them through the door. He had barely tumbled in when he saw exactly what he needed: another sword, sticking up through a hole in the floor.
Ico grabbed the sword by the hilt and pulled it out with a clear ringing sound. He turned to meet the first spirit head-on as it tried to crowd in through the door after them. Ico was stunned by the power of the sword; in three swipes, the spirit was nothing but a cloud of smoke. It seemed the sharp edge could cut through things of the spiritual realm as well as those of the physical. More spirits continued to come through the door, but they all fell to Ico's flashing sword. When at last the final one had fallen and the chill left the air, Ico looked appraisingly down at his sword and nodded in satisfaction. It would be helpful as they continued through the castle.
I named this chapter "light" because this whole puzzle thing in here has a lot to do with light and darkness. And when spirits are involved, the presence or absence of life can be the factor that determines whether you will live or die.