The Keep of Ages by Caragh M. O'Brien

Author:Caragh M. O'Brien
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

19

ARSELF

THE VOICE HAS AN ETHEREAL, hollow sound, like it’s coming from the end of a canyon or the bottom of a well. It’s mesmerizing and terrifying both.

Who are you? I ask.

“Rosie, what’s going on?” Linus asks, coming near. “Look at me.”

My heart is pounding and tightening in vicious ways. I back away from Linus and slide down the wall to sit on the floor. I press a fist to my chest, hard against my ribs, and suddenly the tight pain in my heart stops. Relief trickles through me like soft blue water, allowing me to breathe again.

Linus has joined me on the floor. I’m aware that he’s speaking to me, but I barely listen to him. The presence is active in my mind again, and I need to concentrate.

This is better, she says, and this time the voice is closer, more immediate. We knew you’d let us through eventually.

I didn’t let you through, I say.

You called our name.

An extra circuit of power is lacing slowly through my veins and muscles.

Three dimensions. So heavy! How does this work?

Invisible strings jerk at my elbows. My jaw works open and closed.

Hey, stop that! I say.

She sends a spiraling, giddy sensation through me, and an instant later, I laugh.

Linus frowns at me. “Rosie? Can you hear me? Say something.”

Get out of me! I say.

Instead, she balls into a heaviness that travels distinctly down my right arm.

So clumsy, but so perfect, too, she says.

I lift my hand and turn it before my face. As if a bright, new light is illuminating each cell, I notice the little creases that separate each section of my fingers. When I curve my fingers together, my palm creates a perfect little nest for water or berries.

Berries, she says. We want to taste raspberries fresh from a summer bush. Where? How far?

Would you listen to me? I ask.

A skittering shifts through my brain like fast hands through a pile of laundry, followed by a confused sense of alarm.

We’re cut off. We don’t know anything! How does she stand it?

The next search is more serious. My mind is actively frisked as every book in my mental library is taken out and shaken. The search is completed almost before I know it’s begun, and I’m left breathless, dizzy.

It’s okay. We can still do this, she says. It’s so personal. So immediate and sensory. That’s the trade-off. And what’s this?

I feel a plinking of strings at the back of my mind, like she’s testing the taut wires of a harpsichord.

Stop that! I say.

How do we turn her off? Is it this?

A slash of pain rips through my head and I gasp, paralyzed.

“Rosie!” Linus says. He gives my shoulders a shake. “You’re having a nightmare. Wake up.”

I manage to peer directly, desperately into his good eye.

“Help me,” I whisper.

With a jerk, Linus lifts me bodily and carries me out the door to the porch. Cold rain slams down on me, drenching me completely. Shocked, I suck in air, and my senses smack back on. The voice is gone.

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