For a giant beaver, the Archimaede sure had a nice way with words. He gave Kari a long hug, then looked straight at me.
“As for you, Liam, brother of Kari, I am pleased.”
“Thanks.” You wouldn’t think I would care about a giant beaver’s opinion of me, but I realized I did. I wanted him to think I had done a good job, and it felt good to know he did felt way. “Thank you, Archimaede.”
“You’ve kept two of the three promises.”
“I have?”
“You vowed to grasp things of great value and hold fast to them no matter the cost to yourself. You literally held on to Kari in the realm of the mirror. Held on through great pain, I might add. That’s one. You also promised White Lady of Eveness that you would do whatever you could to help Kari, whether you had a sword or not. Facing down a dragon with two rocks in your hands surely fulfills that vow.”
I’d forgotten that. Maybe White Lady would be a little nicer to me now. “Then there’s only one promise left. I don’t suppose you’d give me a hint now as to what the last promise is?”
“No. I cannot be certain what it is and cannot risk leading you astray. The last steps may be the hardest. Things are often like that. Don’t worry. You’ve confronted the challenges and overcome them. You’ve confronted your fears and overcome them.”
I stared at him. “How did you know about that? The fears thing?”
“I saw those fears, Liam, brother of Kari, before you left. You could not have succeeded had you not overcome them.” The Archimaede chewed his stick a few times. “There are few certainties in the worlds, and many chances. But I knew enough to believe you would be able to deal with anything you encountered.” He canted an affectionate look at Kari. “Faith is a very powerful force. Faith in other people and powers, and faith in yourself. Kari has great faith in you.”
Kari doesn’t know me very well, I wanted to say. If she knew every time I’d thought about running out on her…
But the Archimaede shook his head. “What matters is what you do, Liam, brother of Kari. Have you not learned that yet?”
“Do you read minds?”
“No. I just understand people, even people not of this world. No one of any intelligence can encounter danger without having fears and second-thoughts. The measure of a person is how they respond to those thoughts and fears. Do they let the fears master them, do they take actions that harm others or let others come to harm? Or do they risk themselves for the benefit of others? And when they encounter something new, do they accept it without thinking, or do they question that thing and themselves in order to fully judge and understand it? You know which choices you made, and I think you made them in full knowledge of the alternatives, which is a very worthy thing indeed. You will carry the knowledge of what you can be with you from now on.” The Archimaede inclined his head toward me.
Something suddenly occurred to me. “You did teach me something.”
“Yes, I did,” the Archimaede admitted. “Force of habit, perhaps.” He turned and gave Kari a last, quick hug. “Go, now. Both of you. Kari, you know the way to your brother’s home, which will now be your own, but the way will very soon be changing and not for the better. Make haste.” As Kari and I scrambled up the river bank and headed back along the meadow toward the forest, the Archimaede called after us. “Liam, brother of Kari, I trust you with her! Take care of this girl!”
“That would be another promise, wouldn’t it?” I yelled back.
“Yes!”
“I’ll make it anyway. I’ll take care of her.” We had defeated the mirror and survived the elves and the wight, we had killed the dragon and made it back here. A second walk through the Forest of Doom shouldn’t be all that bad.
We were jogging again, my fatigue so overwhelming now that I was mainly concentrating on not throwing up.
The unicorns were waiting for us about where we had left them, among the trees just outside the far side of the meadow. The sun had swung so low in the sky that its almost level rays were shooting in among the trees and illuminating the white unicorns so brightly that they glowed like stars in the fringes of the forest. The unicorns watched us come up, then all of them except White Lady bowed their heads toward us. I don’t mind admitting it took my breath away for a moment. Well, it would have taken my breath away if I hadn’t been bent over struggling to suck in air and not pass out.
White Lady came forward and caressed Kari with her muzzle. “I brought these for you.” One hoof lightly touched a leather bag and a leather pack lying on the grass. “Your minstrel’s harp and some of your things. But the Archimaede tells me you cannot take them, that these objects would create problems in your world just as the objects you have found created problems here. I promise you that your things will be well-looked after in case a means should ever be found for you to be reunited with them.”
Kari made a sad face. “I will make a new harp in my new home, and think of you and the others whenever I play it.”
“What about the sword?” I asked. The last thing I wanted was for Kari to be separated from that, but if it would cause major problems someone had to think about that.
White Lady eyed me without the suspicion she had held earlier. “The Sword of Fate is part of Kari. Your world will not see it as an object apart from her. Her headband, made from the hairs of unicorns, is also safe, for unicorns are at home in all worlds. However, her other clothing will cause problems over time.”
“I must leave all my clothes here?” Kari asked. She groaned. “If I must. Is there no end to the trials of this day? Brother, please hold the Sword of Fate while I remove my clothes. I trust you not to look upon me.”
“What? How can I follow you and not look upon you?” I shook my head, fending off the offered sword. “No way. That would be wrong and sick and let’s not go there. Kari should keep her clothes on.”
“I do not wish to do it, but if the safety of our worlds is at stake—”
To my surprise and relief White Lady shook her head at Kari. “Liam is right. The journey will be difficult enough. Attempting it without boots and other clothing would be too perilous. Trust me that the matter of your clothes can be dealt with. Now you must go. The walls between the worlds grow strong again, and if you wait too long you will not be able to get home.”
“But my home is here!” Kari cried. “I have known I must leave, but now that the moment is here I cannot!”
“Hush, child. You can do almost anything you bend your will toward. Is that not so, Liam, brother of Kari?”
I hadn’t expected that question, but the answer wasn’t too hard. “Yes.”
White Lady nodded to Kari. “Your home is with your brother, your father, and your true mother. You know this as well as I.”
Kari blinked back tears. “I can never come back and visit with you?”
“You must not. The journey will be far more difficult and far more perilous for even you. You would not survive. No, you must stay in your own world. That is where you belong.”
Kari let her hands drop and just stood there. “Then I will never see you again, and that hurts more than any injury ever done to me.”
White Lady actually laughed, and it sounded a lot more like a human laugh than it did a horse laugh. “I am not like you, Spirit Daughter. You cannot come here, but even when the walls are at their strongest, they cannot stop me.”
“I do not understand,” Kari said. “I thought you could not go to my world.”
“Not when it held nothing I knew. Even when the walls were weakened I could not reach your world without anything to guide me there. But once you are in that world I will be able to find it and you. Though the journey will not be simple or easy, to the guardians of the walls between worlds my presence will be like a soft breeze which passes without alarm. I can bring your clothing from this world back here when I come to see you, if,” the unicorn rolled one of her eyes at me, “I am welcome.”
Kari gasped with joy. “Of course you would be welcome! Woul
d she not, Liam?”
“Ohhhhh…yeah. Mom has guests stopping by all the time. What’s one more unicorn?”
White Lady gave me one of her looks. Now I was certain that she knew exactly what I was thinking. But the unicorn didn’t seem to dislike me anymore. Instead, she came close enough to lightly rap the side of my head with her horn in a playful way. It still hurt, of course, and almost knocked me over. I started to understand where Kari got her punch-in-the-shoulder show of affection. White Lady winked at me. “I know now that you will take care of my spirit daughter, Liam, brother of Kari. Your spirit has grown and you no longer need conceal feelings, you even then knew, in your heart to be unworthy.”
I wondered just how pale I went at that moment. “You did know what I was really thinking when we first talked.”
“Yes. But we need speak of that no more. Kari believed her brother must surely have the strength to stand with her no matter the test. I accepted her belief, and you have proven her right. Rest assured that she shall return every good deed done her three-fold or more, for that is her nature. My blessing is with you until we meet again.” White Lady back-stepped a few paces and tossed her head. The sun sank beneath the tree tops on the other side of the meadow and dusk fell with startling speed. “Now, go! Quickly! The day ends and the walls strengthen!”
Kari waved frantically to the other unicorns, blew White Lady a kiss, then turned and started running into the gloom of the darkening forest. I followed, staggering back into motion, trying not to run into any trees and somehow keeping up until Kari slowed her pace.
It didn’t take long to figure out what Kari’s friends had been worried about. This time the Forest of Doom felt a lot worse than the first trip. The forest rapidly grew wilder as we jogged along. A heavy wind started to blow among the massive tree trunks, moaning through the branches and tossing leaves and twigs down on us. The trees made menacing noises as their branches swung overhead. This time it felt like the trees weren’t just guards watching us. Now they were guards out to stop us if they could. Something was still holding them back a bit, though, as if they couldn’t quite get us until the walls between worlds got strong enough again. I found myself wondering how much time we had left.
The vague shadows in the gloom felt closer, too, taking advantage of the twilight to swirl in nearer toward us and still not be seen clearly. There weren’t any birds. Kari glanced back at me several times, her face betraying concern. At one point she paused, looking slowly from side to side as if searching for something.
I waited without saying anything, knowing I shouldn’t distract her. Finally, Kari pointed slightly off to the right. “That way.” I noticed she had the other hand over her shoulder, gripping the hilt of her sword so tightly her knuckles were white, though she hadn’t drawn the weapon.
I realized that I had gotten used to seeing Kari calm and confident. Seeing her worried really rattled me. “It’s a lot worse this time, isn’t it?”
Kari gave me that very serious look. “Yes. It is harder and harder. The walls are healing and strengthening. They are fighting our progress.”
“But we can make it, right?”
“I…I think so. Liam, I did not want to worry you, but I am certain now there is also a basilisk on our trail. It is hunting us.”
I had an immediate urge to spin around and look for it, but managed to stop myself. Basilisks turn anything that looks at them into stone, so just how smart would it be to look behind us to see if there was a basilisk there? “Okay. Well, if it gets too close we’ll…do something.”
Kari swallowed. “I cannot defeat a basilisk, Liam.”
Somehow, a cheery pep talk didn’t feel like the right thing at the moment, and I didn’t know any specific tips for defeating basilisks. So I just nodded, made a fist, and tapped her shoulder with it. “You’re not alone, Kari. We can do anything together. Look on the bright side. At least we don’t have to worry about dragons.”
Kari gave a snort of disbelief. “You jest even now? You are impossible.”
“Look who’s talking.”
“Liam, I fear we cannot make it. I am so tired and the way is long and the basilisk will slowly overtake us—”
She was tired and scared. Of course she was, after a day of taking the lead while we walked between worlds and fought all kinds of things. “Kari.” I waved around us. “We’re walking between worlds. Today I’ve fought dragons and monsters and mirrors and talked to unicorns and giant beavers and right now I’m being hunted by a basilisk. Today I found out I’ve had a sister for fourteen years even though I’ve been an only child the entire time. And you’re trying to tell me we can’t do this?”
“Yes,” she admitted reluctantly. “Though I must confess you have a point.”
“Let’s keep going, Kari. It can’t be too much further to home, can it?”
She looked grim. “I wish I knew for certain.”
“Hey, I can’t lead the way, but I’ve got your back.” That wasn’t enough, I could tell. I gritted my teeth and said the two words I had hoped I would never have to say. “Dearest sister.”
Kari actually smiled a bit when I said that, nodded with a look of renewed determination, and led us onward.
We kept going and things kept getting worse. The wind howled now, whipping leaves into the air to strike our clothes and faces. Large branches crashed down occasionally, some close enough to make us jump. The gloom had deepened, as if full night had come on, but it must have been a completely overcast night because there wasn’t a trace of starlight or moonlight to give us any comfort. Aside from Kari, who I stayed as close to as I could without treading on her heels, all I could see in the storm-driven darkness were the dim shapes of the huge trees on all sides of us. Occasionally one of the vague, monstrous shapes would loom real close, but then veer off just before it got within reach of Kari’s sword. Whenever the screams of the wind diminished for a moment we could hear the basilisk snuffling along behind us, its sounds getting closer every time. We bent over, fighting against the wind and trying to keep the basilisk on our track from seeing us.
I thought I had been scared the first time we came through this forest. I thought I had been scared when the wolf pack attacked Kari and me. I thought the mirror and everything in that castle had scared me worse than anything could. Same for the encounter with the elves, and when that dragon had been this far from biting my head off.
But I realized now that those things hadn’t been that bad. Not compared to this. The funny thing was that, even though I was scared crazy, I was also able to keep going and keep my head on straight. If we had run into this on my first trip through with Kari, I would have run screaming into those dark woods or curled up into a ball and waited for something to kill me. It was that bad, the sort of fear that makes you crazy and steals every bit of your strength. But this time it didn’t. I wasn’t having fun, I was shaking and I felt like throwing up, but I could handle it.
Which was lucky for me, because it went on like that for a long time. I couldn’t tell how far we had gone or how far we had left to go. I could only hope that Kari knew, but there was no way I was going to distract her by asking questions, even if I hadn’t been worried about the basilisk hearing us talking. All I knew for sure was that the weather kept getting worse, the wind battering us and hurling leaves at our faces as if the storm was actually fighting us.
Kari finally came to a stop beside a large tree, then stood up straight, her back against it. She raised one hand and reached back, drawing her sword. Holding the sword in a ready position, she looked at me with an oddly calm expression. “You are almost there,” she shouted over the wind, “but the basilisk is too close, Liam, and the walls between worlds are tightening around us. You must go before they seal. I will hold the basilisk at bay for you. Run. Now.”
As much as I wanted to Run Now, something about that plan didn’t make sense to me. “I can’t go between worlds without you!”
“You can for this short distance when I have
already opened the way. Just go, quickly!”
“You said you couldn’t beat a basilisk!”
“I cannot! But I can keep it busy while you reach home!”
“What? But then you’d—” Die. For certain.
I looked in the direction of home and safety, I listened to the basilisk thumping and hissing much too close for comfort, I felt the fear in my guts that made me want to howl like a dog. And I looked at Kari, holding a sword she knew couldn’t help this time, standing there desperately determined to save me no matter what it cost her. The sister who had come charging in to save me from a dragon. And now was volunteering to stay here to fight a hopeless battle while I ran for safety. This is what you wanted, right, Liam? A way to ditch this sister you didn’t have, and keep everything at home centered around you?
Maybe I had wanted that, this morning. But not anymore. This morning had been a really long time ago. All of my thoughts took maybe a second this time, because I didn’t even have to think about what to do. I knew the answer right away. “No!” I yelled, not caring whether the basilisk heard. “No, no, no! I’m not going anywhere without you!”
“Liam—”
“It’s not going to happen! Okay, I’m scared. I’m scared out of my mind. But I promised the Archimaede that I’d take care of you. I didn’t leave you in that mirror and you didn’t leave me to that dragon and nobody’s leaving anybody to some ugly basilisk. I’m not some stinking elf. We’re a team. We’re going home together or I’m staying here to fight beside you.”
I’d seen Kari smile before, but not like this. It made me feel, for the first time, like maybe I deserved some of the great things she had said about her big brother.
Don’t ever tell her I said that.
“What can we do?” she yelled as the wind shrieked with renewed fury. “The basilisk is right behind us!”
“Then we won’t look that way! How fast can a basilisk charge?”
“I do not know!”
“Let’s hope they’re slower than we are. Which way’s home, again?”