His stare continued. He shifted his weight and started again.
"Yossinda, I'm ordering you to leave. I will find a replacement. The Queen must wake up from this deep sleep. If she doesn't, that cannot fall on you. And I know the Saans and the Domi will let you take the blame. They are not being honest with you Yossinda. They are using you because they do not want her death on their hands. I know you've seen her scar. Do you think that the King could deliver a blow like that? He is not that clever. The Saans, we are."
"What?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"No, SaanKote," I continued, "I am one of the most loyal women in this city. The Saans brought me here because they trust me and they know I pray for the Queen with every movement I make."
SaanKote kept staring at me intently. I threw away his hands and started to cry in my own.
"Yossinda you must think about how this looks! Why would they let you in here all alone? Why would they let you do this, when there are underlings who spend their lives only mixing potions? I know you are afraid, that your sister is sick and you must work for your family, but I can help you, let me help you. First you must stop working in here."
He stopped abruptly. Something thudded in the hall, just before a huge cloaked figure crashed through the door. Its hood fell down, exposing a misshapen head with matted long gray hair.
"Kote save us," I whispered.
"What is that?" SaanKote asked.
"Mama!” it shrieked with delight.
Chapter 56
Aneh
She traveled with such accuracy, never tripping, moving swiftly.
By the time Dottir broke through the doorway I realized where we were, back in the bowels of the Citadel, headed toward the water gallery. A smallish Saan was loitering in the hallway when we peeled around the corner. He looked up, frightened, and tried his best to stop the lumbering woman-child. She swiped him to the side with an effortless swing of her arm, smashing him into a wall. She did the same to the next Saan and the next, leaving a trail of weak blue-robed men in her wake. I hopped over them just in time to witness the last and greatest horror.
Dottir barged into the great blue water gallery and let out a cry of joy. "Mama!" she squealed with delight at the sight of her mother, comatose in her watery box. When Queen Myrah failed to reply, Dottir's rage escalated like a brush fire. I was yelling to her to stop and tried in vain to pull her away from the tank. She swung her arms wildly just before smashing the glass with her bare hands.
Water poured out, knocking over Dottir and ripping the Queen from her weightless chamber. The light blue water was became swirled with red, blood from Dottir, blood from the Queen. Dottir ignored me as I hovered around, trying desperately to pick out shards of glass from her arms, her stomach, her face.
She swatted me away, becoming more sluggish as she struggled to cradle her mother. "Mama wake, wake up! Mama love Dottir," she sobbed into the pool of water.
Just then I realized there were others in the chamber with me. I saw Olei and the little white woman standing, mouths open, next to a massive display of thousands of bottles. Mole and Mouse crept out from a hiding place, iron bars in hand, silent as little vermin.
"Holy Reas' Sons of Saans," Mole uttered.
Olei moved to stand in front of the woman protectively. I just looked at him, unable to read his expressions anymore, then moved into the chaos that Dottir had created.
The floor of the gallery had quickly turned into a knee-deep pool. Dottir was growing more tired as the Tinea had its effect. I tried once more in vain to lift her and get her out.
Mouse, Mole and I heaved at her, but she refused to move. Olei raced to lift the Queen; but when he picked her up, the flesh nearly peeled off her bones. She was a skeleton, dead or nearly there, and Dottir would not let go of her mother, who looked like a toy doll stretched between two greedy children.
Olei turned to us, eyes furious. "In the name of Aethan, what are you three doing here?" he yelled.
"What are you doing here, oh mighty great one?" Mole shouted back. Olei didn't expect such boldness, he was silent for a moment while we heaved on the groaning Dottir.
"Not want!" Dottir growled. With sudden fierceness, she swiped at us with a piece of broken glass, slicing Mouse’s leg before stabbing Olei in the side. Mouse screamed. Olei winced, and in the chaos his cloak was pulled open, exposing a necklace to which were tied our four pairing bands. We locked eyes for one last time.
"Mole, we have to do this now, or we're done for," Mouse gasped. They let go of Dottir who had relaxed from her rage. She was smiling and cradling her mother, speaking softly as the life drained out of both mother and daughter.
Bars in hand, the Mouse and Mole walked over to the Tinea vat near the spring and began hacking at it. Their swipes were haphazard, hitting rocks near the spring’s outlet and breaking them off. The wall seemed to crumble, water rushed with increasing urgency. I ran to help, leaving Dottir. By the time we had pulled the Tinea vat away from the spring the water levels had risen to our thighs. Mouse was slowing - the Tinea in the water had seeped into the gash torn into his leg. Mole picked up his friend and threw him over his shoulders just as the rock and brick casing around the spring burst.
Olei had swum slowly over the girl, who was desperately clinging to the shelves. The light was leaving his eyes. It was the last I saw of him.
The water was still rising. Mole and I struggled to swim under Mouse’s weight of Mouse.
"The door to the storeroom...I’m going to open it!” I yelled. “You’ll have to follow me!” He nodded and I took a deep breath.
The door opened outwards and I was violently thrown into the waterless space. I surfaced in time to hear the wooden shelves groaning against the rush of water, threatening to collapse. Mole left Mouse clinging to the shelves to help me open the stone door to the passageway. Together we supported Mouse’s weight as we ran up and up.
By the time made it to the commons the Citadel was lost in chaos. People were panicking, the ground was shaking. Water gushed out from the bowels of the Citadel. Mole was exhausted from carrying Mouse but he continued on until we reached the yard and found a wheelbarrow to put him in. Fires were flaring somewhere, I could smell the smoke. Rain hammered down on the muddy ground.
Chapter 57
Yossinda
SaanKote clutched my arm so hard that it hurt. I had never learned to swim and clung with all of my might to the shelves. Everything was breaking and the water levels were so high. I was just like one of the drowning rats I had seen in the mines with my father— weak, scared, helpless. SaanKote kept shouting for me to keep my head up or hold on or something. He was bleeding but he was still much stronger than I.
My wet dress was so heavy. I let it pull me down. I let my mouth fill with water. My tears were one with the water element and soon, just like my birth sign, I would be too.
Chapter 58
Aneh
There is a lightness to losing. I no longer have the stress of possibility urging me on or keeping me awake at night. My journey home has been longer for I am walking much more slowly. And though I bring with me kind company—my dear friend Mole—there is a sadness to my being that I fear I will never shed.
Off in the distance I see the great red cliffs of my homeland looming, their great faces remind me of giants frozen into stone. I think of the vastness of time, nature and all of the things we do not know. I wonder where Olei is and if there is a time after my death when we will meet again and feel safe in each other’s embrace. I think of how short my life is in comparison to the rocks in the cliffs and somehow I manage to feel grateful in spite of my losses.
XXX
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Elizabeth Wyman
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