Mud by E. J. Wenstrom

Author:E. J. Wenstrom
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-944728-36-6
Publisher: City Owl Press

Chapter Eighteen

We pause at the cave’s mouth before moving on. Miriam pants, bent over and leaning on her knees. My own breaths heave, too. It gnaws at me, to think what it might mean. How tired we are from such a short climb. But I can’t do anything about that right now.

At least we’re safe. For now.

Safe and enclosed in the cave’s cool darkness, I let it all fall away. Tuck away my defenses and ease into the cool cloak of the shadow.

This is right. This the way we need to go. I can feel it.

Miriam pants, “We need to keep going.”

Weariness and cold are seeping deep into my bones.

“Rest a little longer. Catch your breath. Then we’ll go on.”

I lean against the wall and pull out the box. Open it up—the top lifts so easily now—and stare at the strange green jewel inside. What is this necklace, that it demands such protection? That it causes so many to want it so desperately?

More questions, nothing but questions. Even here, where I am unbound from it, it has brought nothing but troubles. I almost wish I’d never opened it at all. Almost wish I could disappear back into my temple tower, before any of this started. Back into its shielded protection, I crave. It feels so far away, so long ago.

But no. That was not real security. The Hunters kept coming and coming. The box kept me from any kind of happiness.

But even that was so much more than what I have now. The bottomless unknowing of this realm, the surprises and twists. The gnawing pain.

I ache for that simplicity again. I ache for the shore, for Jordan.

I close the box and put it back into my pocket, where it belongs.

What is he doing right now, I wonder. Playing with the other children along the shore? Training, maybe?

My eyes drift back to Miriam. Can I really leave her, after all this? She turned down eternal peace to be at my side. Maybe I can at least help her back to the Crossing.

And there’s only one way back to Jordan. Only one way I could stay there. Not Miriam. Rona. She is the only way this will ever stop, the only way to any sort of end for me. Bring her back. Get my soul.

I close my eyes, and I can almost feel the warm breeze caressing around me. Almost hear the soft waves brush the sand. The sun on my skin. Almost hear his voice calling for me, waving to me to join them.

My eyes whip back open. My ears twinge.

I did hear him. No. It’s impossible.

But then it comes again.

“Adem!”

His laugh bubbles in echoes from deep within the caves. With it my spirits float and the pain, the weariness, the cold is forgotten for a fluttering moment. My mind brightens, as if a warm light were swelling within me.

“Did you—” I start, but Miriam is already on her feet.

“Yes,” she says. “It sounds just like him.”

We listen intently. Nothing.

I step deeper in toward the tunnel.

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