Chapter 60
Lost
Snow was everywhere, in the air and on the ground and on the clothes. Francesca had never seen so much snow all together. Everything around them was covered in snow, there were no houses, no roads, nor trees in the distance, only a big, desolated snow field, so deep they sunk in it up to their knees. There were three of them: her, Musa and Stella. They had lost the others in the portal.
- What do we do? Should we transform and look for the others? - asked Musa, shivering.
- I'm not sure it's a good idea, we might run out of energies before finding them. - said Stella.
- We need to find a place to take shelter at least. - insisted Musa.
- Right now we need a new outfit. -
As she spoke, Stella snapped her fingers, materializing warm winter clothing. They still felt the cold, but it was more bearable.
- I say we transform, fly up high and see which way it's better to go. - said Francesca.
The others nodded.
§§
Far away from them, Flora, Stormy and Cassandra were in a snowy field as well, although their situation was not as desperate: the portal had thrown them near a big building, which looked like a crossover between a cathedral and a villa. They weren't too keen on the idea of going inside and they tried to reach the other girls telepathically before anything else, uselessly.
- I can't reach them, they're too far! - said Stormy.
- This... place looks inhabited. Let's go in, at least we'll find out where we are and we'll be warm. - suggested Flora.
- Can't you talk to some plant? - the witch asked her.
Flora glared at her.
- Do you see any vegetation around? Everything is covered in snow and there isn't a single tree. I know you think it's a trap, but we don't have that many options. We'll be careful. - she said.
- Fine, but we go in transformed. - Stormy gave in.
- Wouldn't that be careless? - asked Cassandra.
- No, anyone who lives there has magical powers. I feel them too. - Flora reassured her before transforming into her Bloomix.
Cassandra preferred her fairy form rather than her witch one too, thinking it would inspire more trust.
They walked up to the door and Cassandra knocked with the iron door knocker, decorated with grapevine leaves. They heard a sound of hurried steps, then the door opened slightly, just enough to let them see a young woman with pale skin, long blonde hair and lilac eyes.
- Hello. - Flora said, flaunting her sweetest smile, - We're foreigners and we got lost. Could you host us for a few hours? -
The lady, not at all surprised or unsettled by their outfits, smiled back at her.
- Of course, come in. You can stay as long as you need, I am pleased to have guests. - she said.
§§
- I don't know for how long I'll be able to swim. - said Maria.
- Hold on, there's a ship coming towards us. If we can get us seen they'll take us on board. - Aisha encouraged her.
- I don't know, maybe we better stay in the water. - said Rebecca.
The ship, a vessel that soared at an unusually high speed, didn't look reassuring. The sails seemed old and ruined, it didn't fly any flag and its whole structure was engulfed with an unsettling milky halo.
- We can always jump back in the water. - joked Maria, going back to swimming towards the vessel.
Someone on the ship had seen them, because a tender was lowered on the water. As it moved towards them, it brought the unnatural halo with it. The three men on it seemed to be normal, but the three girls didn't let their guard down.
When the tender was near enough, they stopped rowing, letting the boat go by inertia, and helped the girls to climb in without a word.
- Who should we thank? - asked Aisha.
One of the three, with a bandana carefully covering his head, and sunburnt nose, made a half smile and said:
- The captain. -
The girls glanced at each other and gave in to the unsettling silence that occupied the way back to the vessel. They observed their saviors as discreetly as they could. One of them had skin darker than Aisha's, he had a long scar on his left arm; the other wore his straight black hair in a thin low ponytail and studied them the same way they did him; the one with the bandana seemed to be annoyed by something undefined. All three of them wore a gold earring and wore worn out clothes that definitely weren't modern. The tender was pulled up on the ship. A raspy voice welcomed the girls.
- Welcome on the Flying Dutchman. -
§§
- Darcy, are you sure that letting them drag us to jail was a good idea? - asked Lzzy, her voice saying "I really think it wasn't".
Darcy rolled her eyes. She couldn't take it anymore. The portal had thrown the two of them plus Desirè in the middle of a town, where apparently ladies appearing out of nowhere were considered a public danger worthy of being arrested and thrown in a moist, dark and smelly cell. With shackles on both wrists and ankles, furthermore, but they got rid of them with a snap of fingers as soon as the guards left.
- Lzzy, I told you already, as long as we don't know what to do we might as well stay here. - replied Darcy with the less annoyed tone she could bring out.
Lzzy sat on the pile of moldy straw in a corner of the cell and bit her tongue. She should've listened to Icy and not followed her. She shouldn't have let go in the portal. Now they couldn't contact the others and they didn't know where they were or how to go back home.
Darcy was leaning on the bars and studied the corridor, Desirè flew up to look at the street from the cell's opening, too up high to normally peek out of. Getting out of there would be a joke, Lzzy knew it: teleporting outside or turning invisible and walking out the main door wouldn't have been hard at all but, as Darcy said, in that moment it would've been useless. But staying there doing nothing was torture. She had to calm down, she had to contact Icy and find out where she was.
Darcy suddenly pulled back from the bars, struck by an idea.
- Girls, we're in a prison, right? - she said.
- What makes you think that? - Desirè replied sarcastically.
- People die in prison, right? - continued Darcy.
- They shouldn't, but given the era they probably do. - Desirè replied again, - Where are you getting at? -
- Oh my God, you wanna hold a seance? - intervened Lzzy.
- Where there's dead people there's ghosts. - said Darcy, - They could tell us where we are and how to leave. -
Lzzy shivered, but not from the cold. She didn't like the idea of disturbing ghosts at all, but it was all they had.
- Do it. -
§§
The first thing Icy saw outside the portal was a human skull. She pulled back, rightfully scared, and doing so she put her hand on other bones. The portal's light vanished by then, so she only knew that she was in a dark place full of bones and that she had lost Lzzy, because her mind felt incredibly far. Then Bloom sparked a flame to shed some light, and she saw that with them there were also Tecna and millions of skulls, bones and skeletons. They were in a catacomb.
- Let's get out of here. Now. - said Bloom.
- I'm launching a scan of the galleries. It will take a few minutes. - said Tecna, pulling out her phone.
Bloom turned to Icy.
- Can you feel Lzzy? - she asked.
Icy shook her head.
- I know she's alive, but we're too upset to talk at a long distance. Give me some time. - she replied.
Her voice didn't express her real state of mind, it didn't let out how scared she was for the thousand things that could happen to them. That tiny, enclosed space full of death threw her off like few other things. She felt trapped.
Bloom noticed Icy was shaking and put a hand on her shoulder, keeping the flame up high in the other.
- Hey, we'll get out of this. We will all go back home. -