Chapter 24
One morning a couple of days later I woke up a little before dawn, too restless to sleep any longer. I sat up, drawing my knees to my chest, and rested my gaze upon the window; staring outside, there was a strange hunger in my eyes and a longing to get out of this little box we'd been living in. Chistery, who was sitting on the windowsill and also staring fixedly through the glass I guessed was feeling the same way. I was sick of the same four walls surrounding me and tired of having to hide from everything. I wished I wasn't the person I was. What I wouldn't have given to be able to move as I pleased. I wanted more than anything to be able to walk through the glittering city at night, hand in hand with my lover, to have the freedom to travel the streets without having to hide my face, to live again to some degree. I felt caged where I was; even the feel of rain burning my face would've been a welcome change from breathing the same stale air in our what seemed like two foot square of a home.
I growled under my breath and swung myself back into bed to avoid further depression by looking out at the world I could never have. There was a quick dark flash passing the window as I turned away, but being so absorbed with frustration I didn't give it another thought, dismissing it as a trick of the light and the eyes. Chistery, on the other hand, only pressed his nose to the glass, his gaze even more focused than before.
Curling up into a ball, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to shut out the sound of the few larks that still lived in the city. I tossed and turned, aggravated by the birds, by the sun creeping through the window, and by whatever else was out there where I couldn't be. As I vented my frustration into my pillow I also unintentionally woke Fiyero.
"Fabala, go back to sleep." he groaned, tugging the blankets off me and burrowing down farther into them. I tugged them back and after a moment threw them off myself, dissatisfied with the thought of sleeping.
"Make up your mind, already; you either want the covers or you don't." he said groggily, yanking the covers back to his side of the bed.
"If I could get back to sleep I would steal those back from you."
He turned over and propped himself up on his elbow. "What put you so on edge this morning?"
"Existence in general."
At that moment the monkey collided with the side of my head.
"Chistery, what in the name of Oz possessed you to-" I cried and picked him up, holding him at arm's length. He was trembling, his eyes wide.
"We c-c-can't stay here!" he chattered, stuttering with fear.
"What is it? What's the matter, little one?" I asked, my voice softening.
"Someone was outside!"
"What?" I said, glancing nervously toward the window; there was no one there.
"Not here now, but they were before! Before you got up someone was here!" he said, squirming out of my grip.
"Who was here, Chistery, tell me who was here!" I said, scooping him back up and stroking the fur between his wings, trying to calm him a little.
"A girl, with dark hair and a pale face."
"I'm not sure whether or not to worry excessively." I said in a halfhearted attempt at levity. It was the word of a monkey, but an intelligent monkey that seemed entirely serious.
"At any rate, whoever it is, I'd rather not stay here long enough to find out." Fiyero said, pushing himself up out of the bed and pulling a shirt over his head, getting it stuck there.
"Forgot that it's got buttons down the front, did you?" I said, smiling wryly and undoing the first four buttons for him so he could pull his head free. I made sure he was busy with his own clothing and turned away from me before I changed mine.
"Elphie," he began, "d'you think we could use this as an excuse to get ourselves to Kiamo Ko?"
"For one thing, I really don't think I ought to use magic to do it and for another, what do you mean 'ourselves'? I am not too keen on taking you with me."
"Well, if you want to leave this place I'm not going to let you go without me. And staying here isn't exactly the best of solutions, given our discovery. For another thing, it's not as if you can just pick up and walk all the way out to the middle of the Vinkus. As I see it this is your best shot at getting out of here as well as reclaiming possession of whatever you need by way of the Chistery Project, and the only way to make sure we don't get caught by whoever it was that stumbled upon this place."
"I can try the magic, but that doesn't solve the dilemma surrounding what to use as a focus."
"I've told you, I'll be your focus. It really is the best chance you have at getting there with little or no doubts about where the thing might take you. Like I said, I was born in the Vinkus; you don't get much more of a surefire way to do this right."
"With my luck coupled with my dangerously low skill level I'm liable to get us both killed while attempting it."
"Look, you got yourself here with this same spell, and it worked pretty damn well; it landed you right outside my door, for Lurline's sake. We don't know how much time there is before whoever it was might come back, so the sooner we get this over with and get our sorry tails away from this place the better."
"But I've only ever used it on myself, a few of my things, and a monkey! Heaven knows what'll happen with the extra load of another human and whatever else we've got to take! There was a lot of weight on the spell with what I had to move the first time; the added strain could either land us in the middle of who-knows-where or kill us. Or both, for that matter."
"All we need to take is ourselves, the monkey, the oil and my medicine. There's enough stuff left at Kiamo Ko for whatever else we need; by way of food, if there's nothing really edible left in the place I can always go out and kill something."
"Well, Fiyero, the thought of you killing something for me is very flattering, but, consider the chance that we might be dropped miles from where we want to be. What do you propose we do for food, and, taking into account that it's the Vinkus we're trying to navigate, water?"
"Hope we land near the river?"
"That's really not funny." I said, my patience level dropping with each of his remarks.
"I know for a fact that I can go from any point in the Vinkus and get us to Kiamo Ko in less than a week, so figure that's how much food and water we should bring, a week's worth or so. Elphie, believe me, I know what I'm doing. Eventually things will turn out alright, trust me."
"Just get whatever you're taking and let's get the hell out of here." I said, rubbing my arms to fight off the chill prickling over my skin. A shiver lanced up and down my spine; I was hard pressed to think of something good that could come of this mess, and couldn't shake the feeling that things were only going to get worse.
In about fifteen minutes we'd thrown what little we were taking into a sackcloth bag of some sort Fiyero unearthed from wherever he kept his things; I grabbed the Grimmerie from the table and flipped through to the page with the spell I was looking for. Just as I was about to begin the incantation I caught sight of the scarf still sitting on Fiyero's bedside table and snatched it up, tying it around my waist.
"I'm not going anywhere without this." I said, and commenced with the spell, coming as close as I ever had to actually praying we'd land somewhere in the vicinity of where we needed to be.
The all-too-familiar feeling of falling through some sort of liquid surrounded us, this time for what seemed like longer than the last time I'd experienced it. Then we landed; the monkey, being the smart one, leaped off my shoulder where he'd been resting just before we hit the ground. I'd landed heavily on my side and had maybe a half a second to recover before Fiyero slammed into me, knocking the wind out of me for the second time in less than thirty seconds.
"Fiyero, get off me!" I cried once there was enough air in my lungs for me to croak the words out. He rolled off me and clutched his healing arm to his chest, hissing in pain. Chistery sat on the ground in front of us and shook his head, tsk-ing at us as if to say ::Don't you wish you were me?::
"Shh, love, before we move I need you to take that bag off and let me help you." I said, easing the straps over Fiyero's arms and fighting to pull the blue glass bottle from among whatever else was in the bag. Pulling the stopper from it I set I aside and undid his dress-fabric bandage, then poured some of the stuff onto my palms to massage over his wound.
"Thanks." he said once that was done and I'd tied it up again. Taking my hand and helping me to my feet he stood to take in his surroundings. After a long moment or two of analyzing any clues to the weather he could detect he spoke.
"I've got good news and bad news. The good news is we're a few miles past Kumbricia's Pass and just about at the foot of the Great Kells. The bad news is, there's a storm on the way, and by the looks of those clouds it'll be a monster. It's going to be a package deal, complete with lightning and the works, judging by the size of the thunderheads over that way." He pointed roughly toward the east where the storm clouds were gathering ominously. "It's a little late in the season for clouds like that to be overhead, almost unnatural for early autumn like this, but out here you never know what sort of weather you're going to get."
"What is our next plan of action, Mister-'I-Know-What-I'm-Doing'? Know anywhere we can go to get out of the elements?" I cried, throwing my hands in the air. I resented the feeling of helplessness I was faced with whenever circumstances landed me with something I couldn't turn aside or avoid all that easily, such as the inevitability of driving rain.
"Calm down, if we can get to the Kells before the storm breaks we'll be alright. There's bound to be a cave or overhang we can use to our advantage."
"Easy for you to say." I replied, rubbing my arms to ward off the chill that had begun to crawl over my skin.
"I know this can't be easy for you, but we have to try to get there. I'm pretty sure we've got a few hours or so before the inevitable downpour; the clouds look far enough away to give us a sufficient amount of time. We'll make it. Here," he said, taking my hand, "Let's go."
I squeezed his hand, trying to reassure myself that he was right. We set off at a fast walk, my jaw set against the fear clamoring to take control of me. Chistery took off into the air and flew ahead, stopping after every fifteen yards or so and hovering in place to make sure we were catching up.
As for us having a few hours before the sky dumped it's load onto our heads, Fiyero couldn't have been more wrong. After we'd traveled maybe an hour and covered nearly a mile or a little more than that heavy drops of water began cascading relentlessly down on our heads with maybe another half mile to go before we reached the Kells. We broke into a run, but given the situation we'd been dealt I wasn't able to keep the pace up for long. The water had such an effect on me that the droplets I kicked up as I ran stung like a thousand bees as they hit my legs. The stinging became a steady burn and my muscles couldn't take it for much longer. Eventually my legs gave out from under me and I crumpled to the ground. I tried to force myself back to my feet, but the weight of my sodden skirts dragged me back to my knees as well as the fact that I was in far too much pain to stand, making any attempts I made at mobility utterly in vain. It even became a fierce battle just managing to keep air flowing into my lungs. Every inch of me screamed out to relax and let go, but I felt Fiyero pull me up again and I tried to stay awake as long as possible before the pain clouded my eyes, making the blurred landscape go black.
One morning a couple of days later I woke up a little before dawn, too restless to sleep any longer. I sat up, drawing my knees to my chest, and rested my gaze upon the window; staring outside, there was a strange hunger in my eyes and a longing to get out of this little box we'd been living in. Chistery, who was sitting on the windowsill and also staring fixedly through the glass I guessed was feeling the same way. I was sick of the same four walls surrounding me and tired of having to hide from everything. I wished I wasn't the person I was. What I wouldn't have given to be able to move as I pleased. I wanted more than anything to be able to walk through the glittering city at night, hand in hand with my lover, to have the freedom to travel the streets without having to hide my face, to live again to some degree. I felt caged where I was; even the feel of rain burning my face would've been a welcome change from breathing the same stale air in our what seemed like two foot square of a home.
I growled under my breath and swung myself back into bed to avoid further depression by looking out at the world I could never have. There was a quick dark flash passing the window as I turned away, but being so absorbed with frustration I didn't give it another thought, dismissing it as a trick of the light and the eyes. Chistery, on the other hand, only pressed his nose to the glass, his gaze even more focused than before.
Curling up into a ball, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to shut out the sound of the few larks that still lived in the city. I tossed and turned, aggravated by the birds, by the sun creeping through the window, and by whatever else was out there where I couldn't be. As I vented my frustration into my pillow I also unintentionally woke Fiyero.
"Fabala, go back to sleep." he groaned, tugging the blankets off me and burrowing down farther into them. I tugged them back and after a moment threw them off myself, dissatisfied with the thought of sleeping.
"Make up your mind, already; you either want the covers or you don't." he said groggily, yanking the covers back to his side of the bed.
"If I could get back to sleep I would steal those back from you."
He turned over and propped himself up on his elbow. "What put you so on edge this morning?"
"Existence in general."
At that moment the monkey collided with the side of my head.
"Chistery, what in the name of Oz possessed you to-" I cried and picked him up, holding him at arm's length. He was trembling, his eyes wide.
"We c-c-can't stay here!" he chattered, stuttering with fear.
"What is it? What's the matter, little one?" I asked, my voice softening.
"Someone was outside!"
"What?" I said, glancing nervously toward the window; there was no one there.
"Not here now, but they were before! Before you got up someone was here!" he said, squirming out of my grip.
"Who was here, Chistery, tell me who was here!" I said, scooping him back up and stroking the fur between his wings, trying to calm him a little.
"A girl, with dark hair and a pale face."
"I'm not sure whether or not to worry excessively." I said in a halfhearted attempt at levity. It was the word of a monkey, but an intelligent monkey that seemed entirely serious.
"At any rate, whoever it is, I'd rather not stay here long enough to find out." Fiyero said, pushing himself up out of the bed and pulling a shirt over his head, getting it stuck there.
"Forgot that it's got buttons down the front, did you?" I said, smiling wryly and undoing the first four buttons for him so he could pull his head free. I made sure he was busy with his own clothing and turned away from me before I changed mine.
"Elphie," he began, "d'you think we could use this as an excuse to get ourselves to Kiamo Ko?"
"For one thing, I really don't think I ought to use magic to do it and for another, what do you mean 'ourselves'? I am not too keen on taking you with me."
"Well, if you want to leave this place I'm not going to let you go without me. And staying here isn't exactly the best of solutions, given our discovery. For another thing, it's not as if you can just pick up and walk all the way out to the middle of the Vinkus. As I see it this is your best shot at getting out of here as well as reclaiming possession of whatever you need by way of the Chistery Project, and the only way to make sure we don't get caught by whoever it was that stumbled upon this place."
"I can try the magic, but that doesn't solve the dilemma surrounding what to use as a focus."
"I've told you, I'll be your focus. It really is the best chance you have at getting there with little or no doubts about where the thing might take you. Like I said, I was born in the Vinkus; you don't get much more of a surefire way to do this right."
"With my luck coupled with my dangerously low skill level I'm liable to get us both killed while attempting it."
"Look, you got yourself here with this same spell, and it worked pretty damn well; it landed you right outside my door, for Lurline's sake. We don't know how much time there is before whoever it was might come back, so the sooner we get this over with and get our sorry tails away from this place the better."
"But I've only ever used it on myself, a few of my things, and a monkey! Heaven knows what'll happen with the extra load of another human and whatever else we've got to take! There was a lot of weight on the spell with what I had to move the first time; the added strain could either land us in the middle of who-knows-where or kill us. Or both, for that matter."
"All we need to take is ourselves, the monkey, the oil and my medicine. There's enough stuff left at Kiamo Ko for whatever else we need; by way of food, if there's nothing really edible left in the place I can always go out and kill something."
"Well, Fiyero, the thought of you killing something for me is very flattering, but, consider the chance that we might be dropped miles from where we want to be. What do you propose we do for food, and, taking into account that it's the Vinkus we're trying to navigate, water?"
"Hope we land near the river?"
"That's really not funny." I said, my patience level dropping with each of his remarks.
"I know for a fact that I can go from any point in the Vinkus and get us to Kiamo Ko in less than a week, so figure that's how much food and water we should bring, a week's worth or so. Elphie, believe me, I know what I'm doing. Eventually things will turn out alright, trust me."
"Just get whatever you're taking and let's get the hell out of here." I said, rubbing my arms to fight off the chill prickling over my skin. A shiver lanced up and down my spine; I was hard pressed to think of something good that could come of this mess, and couldn't shake the feeling that things were only going to get worse.
In about fifteen minutes we'd thrown what little we were taking into a sackcloth bag of some sort Fiyero unearthed from wherever he kept his things; I grabbed the Grimmerie from the table and flipped through to the page with the spell I was looking for. Just as I was about to begin the incantation I caught sight of the scarf still sitting on Fiyero's bedside table and snatched it up, tying it around my waist.
"I'm not going anywhere without this." I said, and commenced with the spell, coming as close as I ever had to actually praying we'd land somewhere in the vicinity of where we needed to be.
The all-too-familiar feeling of falling through some sort of liquid surrounded us, this time for what seemed like longer than the last time I'd experienced it. Then we landed; the monkey, being the smart one, leaped off my shoulder where he'd been resting just before we hit the ground. I'd landed heavily on my side and had maybe a half a second to recover before Fiyero slammed into me, knocking the wind out of me for the second time in less than thirty seconds.
"Fiyero, get off me!" I cried once there was enough air in my lungs for me to croak the words out. He rolled off me and clutched his healing arm to his chest, hissing in pain. Chistery sat on the ground in front of us and shook his head, tsk-ing at us as if to say ::Don't you wish you were me?::
"Shh, love, before we move I need you to take that bag off and let me help you." I said, easing the straps over Fiyero's arms and fighting to pull the blue glass bottle from among whatever else was in the bag. Pulling the stopper from it I set I aside and undid his dress-fabric bandage, then poured some of the stuff onto my palms to massage over his wound.
"Thanks." he said once that was done and I'd tied it up again. Taking my hand and helping me to my feet he stood to take in his surroundings. After a long moment or two of analyzing any clues to the weather he could detect he spoke.
"I've got good news and bad news. The good news is we're a few miles past Kumbricia's Pass and just about at the foot of the Great Kells. The bad news is, there's a storm on the way, and by the looks of those clouds it'll be a monster. It's going to be a package deal, complete with lightning and the works, judging by the size of the thunderheads over that way." He pointed roughly toward the east where the storm clouds were gathering ominously. "It's a little late in the season for clouds like that to be overhead, almost unnatural for early autumn like this, but out here you never know what sort of weather you're going to get."
"What is our next plan of action, Mister-'I-Know-What-I'm-Doing'? Know anywhere we can go to get out of the elements?" I cried, throwing my hands in the air. I resented the feeling of helplessness I was faced with whenever circumstances landed me with something I couldn't turn aside or avoid all that easily, such as the inevitability of driving rain.
"Calm down, if we can get to the Kells before the storm breaks we'll be alright. There's bound to be a cave or overhang we can use to our advantage."
"Easy for you to say." I replied, rubbing my arms to ward off the chill that had begun to crawl over my skin.
"I know this can't be easy for you, but we have to try to get there. I'm pretty sure we've got a few hours or so before the inevitable downpour; the clouds look far enough away to give us a sufficient amount of time. We'll make it. Here," he said, taking my hand, "Let's go."
I squeezed his hand, trying to reassure myself that he was right. We set off at a fast walk, my jaw set against the fear clamoring to take control of me. Chistery took off into the air and flew ahead, stopping after every fifteen yards or so and hovering in place to make sure we were catching up.
As for us having a few hours before the sky dumped it's load onto our heads, Fiyero couldn't have been more wrong. After we'd traveled maybe an hour and covered nearly a mile or a little more than that heavy drops of water began cascading relentlessly down on our heads with maybe another half mile to go before we reached the Kells. We broke into a run, but given the situation we'd been dealt I wasn't able to keep the pace up for long. The water had such an effect on me that the droplets I kicked up as I ran stung like a thousand bees as they hit my legs. The stinging became a steady burn and my muscles couldn't take it for much longer. Eventually my legs gave out from under me and I crumpled to the ground. I tried to force myself back to my feet, but the weight of my sodden skirts dragged me back to my knees as well as the fact that I was in far too much pain to stand, making any attempts I made at mobility utterly in vain. It even became a fierce battle just managing to keep air flowing into my lungs. Every inch of me screamed out to relax and let go, but I felt Fiyero pull me up again and I tried to stay awake as long as possible before the pain clouded my eyes, making the blurred landscape go black.