‘What is it M’lady?’ says Raven.
Then, I hear the humming above us, like a huge swarm of bees. But there is something else behind the hum, like the murmur of a thousand little voices. Leaves begin to rain down on us. They float down, as dry and brittle as the ones on the floor.
I look up. The lights have gathered above us in an enormous circling cloud. They swim around and around like in a giant whirlpool. I hear the muttering again, clearer and closer this time and what I can hear the lights say scares me to my bones. ‘Water, water.’ the hungry little voices snarl.
A blue spark, quick as lightning, swoops down on us. It flies past Raven in a flash and he caws out in pain. Before I can think, another, violet this time, shoots past my ear. I hear it buzz loudly and then searing pain rocks me. I watch as it zooms off, taking a lock of my dark hair with it. And then, the whirling flock of blinding lights is upon us, swooping and diving at us like airborne piranhas in a tornado, taking with them a bit of skin there, a feather here.
I start to run from them, run from the deafening sound, run from these tiny creatures tearing at my flesh. Every morsel of my skin that they took felt like someone stabbing me with red hot pokers.
Over the thrumming of a thousand wings, I can just hear the sound of Raven's caws, but they are not caws at all, they are screams. Human Screams. I turn back and struggle to see through the blur of red, blue and purple lights that blind me. I can just makes out a little black spot on the ground covered in the lights that feed on him. Raven’s tiny figure is pinned to the ground, like the skeleton that I had stepped on.
I fight through the pain inflicted by the winged lights and fling my sword around wildly in the air. I can still hear the tortured whisper that ripples through them, they say it, over and over again. Hungrily, desperately. 'Water, water …' And then, I understand why that little skeleton had been picked clean, why it was so dry.
I feel the blade of my Sword of Waves slicing through the tiny bodies and I watch as their lights blank out and they fall to the dry leaves below. More of the lights descend on the fallen, feeding on their own kind, mad with thirst.
Suddenly, my memory flashes. I can see myself, holding my sword high in the air, I can feel water pouring out of me, see it coming out of the sword. And I know what I have to do.
Chapter 4
I hold my sword up high, feeling my body tingle all over. There is a strange rushing sensation, all over me, like a million fingertips tracing their way over my skin. My eyes catch a sparkle of light from above. I look up quickly at my arms and legs, thinking that it is the creatures, but it is me. I am illuminated by the fine chains of water, the same ones that I had seen on my feet before, they run over me, all heading towards my sword. And they are glowing.
I drive my sword down into the dry earth and then I am surrounded by water. It floods out of me, like a great wave, covering the forest floor. I feel alive, energised. It quiets my mind and my soul. The water lowers and laps around my knees, soothing my skin.
In an instant, the lights freeze and then dive into the water, drenching the forest in silence.
Raven begins to gurgle and flap around in the water, helpless and damaged. I race to pick up my guide. He folds his ragged wings in and lays on his side in my arms. He makes a kind of a coughing, spluttering cry, more human than bird, and says, ‘Are you okay M’lady? I am so sorry I could not be of more assistance … in this form.’ I silence him by stroking the top of his head where parts of his plucked skin show. ‘Thank you M’lady.’
I look down at the knee high water. The lights that had been attacking us, swim around in it, slowly, gracefully, like little fish. Then all at once, they turn from colour to the clearest of snow white.
I pull my sword out of the ground, ready for another onslaught. I hold Raven close to my chest, but something tells me that this time, they will not want to fight. The white lights get brighter, so bright in fact, that I find myself shielding my eyes from their glare.
They begin, one by one, to splash up out of the water with great sighs. They hang there in the air, floating like glowing dandelion seeds in the breeze. One light floats towards me, close enough that, for the first time, I can see what they are.
In front of my eyes floats a tiny woman of spectacular beauty. Naked and lovely and glowing. Her wings flutter behind her, they are like butterfly wings made of the finest lace.
She flies straight up to my face and kisses me, delicately, on the nose. And then, she begins to speak in a sweet honeydew voice.
‘We, my people of the trees, have been parched for too long. Kept trapped by the insanity of thirst, unable to quench it enough to break free, but unable to die.’ I watch this magical little being and it is unbelievable that these are the same creatures that had been trying to eat us alive, to feast on our fluids. ‘You, our Queen of the tides, giver of Earth blood, have saved us. We are forever in your debt. Please forgive our terrible folly at trying to devour you and Master Raven.’ Then, all the white lit fairies formed a ring around me and Raven and begin to sing. Not a song, just a note. A single note that hangs in the air, beautifully. A soft ringing like the sound fine glass makes when a wet finger is slid around its rim. Then the sound stops and the fairies ascend back into the treetops.
I still hold Raven in the crook of my arm. I run my sword into its scabbard and turn toward the grass on the other side of the giant forest. I trudge towards it, my skin stinging were the little faeries had bitten my flesh, except for the parts still submerged under the water.
As we approach the grass, I realise just how dark it is outside of the forest, away from the lights. I set my small foot on the soft grass, where the water has not reached and the ground shakes with a gigantic groan. The earth cracks open into a deep crevice and I fall to my knees from the force. From inside the hole, which has just opened up, a light emits, bathing everything in an eerie red glow. Heat seeps out like a heavy fog, stinging my face and eyes, dragging the moisture out of me.
The ground begins to peel away and boiling lava oozes out of the crack. It moves quickly, not as slow as I would expect lava to move and as I realise who must be doing this, the Lady of the Land emerges from the boiling, bubbling red mass, growing out of it. She is still mossy and beautiful and seemingly untouched by the searing heat. She had an evil smile on her face, her eyes reflecting the lava’s red glow. ‘Well, little Ellie-Pirate, You made it through the forest. Very good.’ The Lady of the Land speaks so gently, it frightens me.
The lava forms a perfect circle around me and Raven. Not coming close enough to touch my knees, but close enough that it feels like my skin might simply start to peel off my body.
‘I guess that means that you will want something else then? Very Well ...’ says the Lady.
Two shapes, about the size of grapefruits, begin to emerge out of the lava in front of me. Black as volcanic rock. Fetid smoke rolls off their shining surface. For a moment, I think that they are rocks, but as the smoke clears, I notice that they are eggs. I don’t know what I am meant to do with them. I use my one free hand and reach out to touch them, but I do not have to. They both crack open as my hand nears them.
Thick black smoke pours out of the eggs. I watch as it creeps its way across the grass towards me. It curls long tendrils around Raven’s little body, wrapping around him like the tentacles of an octopus. Raven squirms in my arms. He groans painfully. The Lady laughs, a rumbling laugh like the sound of a volcano before eruption. The lava retreats back into the hole.
The smoke continues up my body and I try to get away from it. Raven drops out of my arms, but is still encased with smoke. The smoky vines wrap around my neck, choking me I try not to breathe it in but crawls up my nose and down into my lungs.
I stand up and step back, coughing, trying to remove the stuff out of my body and I watch Raven as his cries get louder. He rolls around on the ground, changing, growing. Raven’s wings sprawl out and swell beside his little bird body. His skin stretches and thick black sca
les grow out of it like fingernails. Hideously scaled hands with long black talons emerge from his feathers.
He screams as his body stretches, his bones grow under his muscles and his skull changes shape.
I want to scream with him, but I simply hold my hand over my mouth and watch his transformation.
His body and legs are still laden with feathers and he rolls around on the ground in agony, thrashing about like he was being attacked, lashing out with his claws. It seems to settle down and go and knee at his side. I put my hand on his back where his soft feathers still reflect the light in beautiful changing patterns. I stroke the down and feel his shallow breathing.
He has grown to three times my size and I am scared of what she has turned him into.
‘Raven, are you okay?’ I say in a little girl’s voice.
‘M’lady, you can talk.’ his voice is laboured and raspy and more like a growl than before, but it still retains some sweetness when he speaks to me.
I try to help him as he rolls onto his back, but I can’t help recoiling when I see what he has become. His face is twisted and grotesque, illuminated by the light of the rising moon. Half man and half bird and all monster. But he looks at me sadly. His eyes have changed too. They stare at me, solemn and grey-blue, like the colour of a stormy sea.
Chapter 5
Raven refuses to rest. I can tell he is struggling to walk. Even in the dim moonlight, I can see he is in pain. He hobbles next to me, looking at his grotesque hands, turning them over and over again. ‘Does my appearance frighten you M’lady?’ he asks me, again.
‘For the last time Raven Sir, no! I have seen much worse than the likes of you,’ I say, touching him lightly on his arm, but having to reach my arm right up to do so.
‘I do love hearing your voice again M’lady, if you don’t mind my saying so.’ Raven finally puts his hands down and just walks. Even with him limping, I have to walk briskly to keep up with his huge strides.
‘I am enjoying speaking again,’ I say. And I am. At the time, it didn’t faze me that I couldn’t talk. Back in the other place, people talked all the time, but rarely seemed to say anything of importance. I never missed it because, I never had it.
My memories have begun to leak back to me, trickling through my subconscious like the beginnings of a waterfall. I remember my ship much more vividly than before. I remember the creaking of its hull on the waves, the sounds of its sails in the winds, the feel of its deck beneath my bare feet.
I have even found other memories of great battles with sea serpents. Hunting for treasure on dangerous, beast-infested islands. Islands made of sharp, blackened rocks and caves that you could get lost in for a lifetime and beyond. Memories of wars, fighting in the water alongside Merpeople. Of long nights on the shore, sand beneath my toes and a fire burning, my crew singing songs of our battles and times at sea.
More than ever now, I long for home. Now that it is more than just a dream or a feeling, now that home is so close. The only things that I can’t remember are myself, Raven and the Lady of the Land. I definitely feel a connection to Raven, but that is it, he is just missing from all my memories. Puzzle pieces lost.
‘Raven?’ I ask in my new voice.
‘Yes, M’lady?’ he says, wincing a little.
‘Do you remember much of our life before now?’ I ask, trying not to give away anything of my own lack of memories.
‘To be honest, M’lady, not much. Although, I remember you.’ He looked down at me with his strange blue-grey eyes that are illuminated by the dim moon light. ‘I knew that I had to find you. I felt it, like it was the most important thing in the world to me.’
I look up at the towering beast lumbering beside me. I hold up my hand in the dark, it is still tiny, like a six year olds. Raven looks at it a moment, looks at his own taloned mitt and then takes mine. It is swallowed up in the mass of claws, scales and feather, but it is warm.
We walk a little longer. ‘How are you feeling?’ I ask.
‘Better M’lady,’ he says. He walks heavily, as if he is drunk.
‘I think it is best if we stop, we both need to rest and we cannot see a thing anyway, save ourselves,’ I say and stop walking. Letting my hand fall out of his.
‘Seeing as though there has been no signs of shelter anywhere, what better place than here?’ Raven says.
I sit down on the soft grass, suddenly feeling how tired I actually am. It is a mild night and I guess that shelter is not really necessary anyway. I lie down and feel my eyelids are heavy and my legs are sore.
Despite the mild night, I find myself shivering on the grass. I try bundling myself into a ball, but my small child’s frame does not hold its own heat well.
I feel the movement behind me before I hear his voice in my ear. ‘You are cold M’lady?’ Without seeing him in front of me, I can almost put a face to his voice. The face he used to have. The memory of him is so close, like a word on the tip of my tongue.
‘Yes,’ I say, not bothering to deny it.
I see his shadow loom over me and then feel his soft downy arm wrap under my body. I feel him embrace me and pull me in close to him, enclosing me completely in his patterned feathers.
‘I’m not hurting you M’lady?’ I hear him say, but I cannot answer him, I am already falling asleep.
***
I awake to a peculiar sight. The same watermelon coloured sky as this land has had since I arrived, but this time it is illuminating a vast expanse white desert. The pink light glints and sparkles off the distant ground, far below me.
In my sleepy state, this image just doesn’t make sense to me. Where is the ground that we were lying upon? Am I flying with Raven? Am I still dreaming?
I feel Raven stirring and then he begins to roll towards me just as I work it out. Just as I work out where we had stopped for the night.
‘Raven! Stop!’ I call out to him trying to grab onto the grassy ledge of the cliff face. I watch as large chunks of earth come loose and plummet down the cliff side. My body goes rigid as I try to resist the long drop.
Suddenly, I am rolled out of the way, everything is blanked out by black feathers. Once we reach a distance that Raven deems safe, he holds me out in his arms, his stormy eyes searching me. ‘M’lady! I … I am so sorry!’
‘Were we next to that all night?’ I ask. I can still hear the tip-tapping of rocks scattering down the cliff side. We sit up and look around. Like everything seems to be in this land, the cliff stretches on forever, in both directions. ‘I don’t know how we could have missed this.’
‘I don’t know M’lady,’ says Raven, as he stands up next to me.
He helps me to my feet and I follow his gaze. We look out over the white, glistening surface below. The wind is still and I can smell the pungent smell and taste that the dry salt-bed gives off. It burns my face and eyes. But, then I notice, it is not the smell, I am simply sad. I know what this place is and I know what it used to be.
This was my ocean and this is where my ocean died.
‘This used to be the ocean, didn’t it?’ I ask Raven. I feel torn apart. Sorrow hollows itself a home inside me. This was my baby, my child, I created it out of my own body, and that witch killed it. Big salty tears stream down my face as I mourn for my daughter, the Sea.
I look up at Raven to find a face that mirrors my own sorrow. I look back at my dead child, now a baron wasteland of shimmering salt crystals. ‘Without you M’lady, it is nothing. Without you, there is no ocean, no streams nor waterfalls, no rain nor mist, without you our home has dried up.’
I think about what the fairy had said to me, about what she had called me. Queen of the Sea, giver of Earth Blood. Tears run out of my eyes in the same silver streams that had covered my skin. They run down my body and trickle off the ends of my fingertips and find their way over the edge of the cliff.
I take a step towards the cliff and feel Ravens humongous, clawed hand on my chest. ‘No, M’lady,’ he says.
I simply hold out my
hand and he lets me move forward. As I get closer to the edge, I notice a sign that I swear was not there before. A little painted sign, similar to the one I had seen at the beginning of the stairs. It says ‘Labyrinth.’ I look side long down the cliff wall and I can see it. The cliff does not simply go straight down, but is interlaced with a network of horizontal rock walls. It is a maze.
Raven joins me by my side. ‘I think the only way is down M’lady,’ says Raven.
I manage a little laugh at his obvious comment. ‘I fear that you are right Raven Sir.’ I sit down on the side of the cliff and dangle my feet over, loosening more stones off the edge. ‘Give me your hands Raven.’ He hesitates. ‘C’mon man! Hands!’ I order, like the captain I am meant to be. ‘You can just lower me to the ledge below, we can begin making our way down, going from wall to wall.’
Raven gives me his hands and plants his feet firmly on the ground. He holds my arms tightly, his claws dig into my skin, but I try not to bring his attention to it. I dangle for a moment above the first rung of the labyrinth, unable to touch the ground. ‘You are going to have to drop me Raven.’
‘No, M’lady. The walls look too thin and ...’ Raven protests.
‘Drop Me!’ I say louder, his claws cutting a little deeper as he struggles to hold onto me.
‘No, M’lady, I cannot,’ Raven says.
‘Drop me now, that’s an order Sir,’ I say.
Raven lets go of just one of my arms and then the other. I drop down to the ledge, landing on my hands and knees. The wall makes a low groaning and a small crack appears where the ledge joins the wall. I gain my balance in a couching position, waiting for the rock ledge to stop creaking, not wanting to make any sudden movements.
I move to the side, making room for Raven. ‘C’mon, I think it’s safe.’
Raven lowers himself down easily, but the ledge groans angrily again. I feel the wall suddenly shift downwards and we both hold our arms out to steady ourselves. ‘I think it is best if we move,’ says Raven.
‘Okay, maybe you should go first this time,’ I say, gesturing to the next step only a few feet in front of us. I look down as Raven lowers himself onto the next level, it is still a little drop even for him, but not as much as it was for me. Once landed, he holds out his wing-like arms to catch me. I can feel in the way that he holds me, that he is trying his hardest not to scratch me, but it cannot be helped.