It was like being reshaped. It was not a comfortable feeling at all.
I reached with my heart toward the skies. I reached and hoped there really was something deep, deep, deep in the endless blue who guarded us like a father and loved us like a mother and would reach down and contain me so I didn’t run out of myself like an uncooked yolk from an egg.
And then I spoke. Because if speaking into a manifestation caused order to form from chaos, then maybe I could form some order here, too.
“Bear us to our destination with speed, but leave us whole,” I said, channeling all my hope into my words. “Do not shatter our shells or leak our yolks out. We are brave and determined. We are relentless. We are filled up to the brim with compassion. Let us thrive! Do not break us. Bear us out of this darkness.”
The rumbling slowed. And the folding grew fainter and then – as if a door had been opened – the wind rushed into my lungs and light burst across my vision.
I took a step forward, still clutching Zayana’s hand – but there was something very still about the moment. As if I was steady within myself with no need to speak or act. It lasted only the blink of an eye but in that blink, I felt like I had been made new, as if that kneading had pulled together frayed edges and shaped me into something slightly sleeker, slightly more ordered, slightly bolder.
I swallowed and the moment was over. The buzz of my bees returned and they roared back into a globe in front of me.
“You’re back!” I whispered to them. “Welcome back.”
I took another step forward, pulling Zayana with me and with a lurch, I realized I had crossed the threshold through the snake’s mouth and back into the little room.
We hadn’t gone anywhere at all. And yet, I felt as if days had passed. I wobbled unsteadily and turned to Zayana.
She had a curious look on her face. She opened her mouth and then shut it again, swallowing visibly before she whispered, “Someone shut the door.”
I let go of her hand and scrambled past the plaque to the door. It was completely shut. Stranger yet, there was no muddy trail where we had come in. I spun to look at Zayana and found her staring up at the ceiling.
Oh.
There was a small hole in the ceiling, lighting the room. That had not been there before. My eyes fell on the plaque and I gasped. The signs on the map had changed. The larger sign had been near to Karkatua before. But now, the larger sign was inland from Astar Harbor. That must be where we were now.
I swallowed as the realization settled over me. We had moved. We’d moved in minutes a distance that should have taken days. But now I realized what the snake warriors had meant when they said that they “hated that part” because as I looked up to the center snake with its wide yawning mouth, I knew I’d have to go into the belly of the snake again. Sweat formed on my brow and I swallowed down a stab of fear.
“Did we ... move?” Zayana asked. Her hands were trembling. “It took me apart and stitched me back together and I don’t think I like it at all.”
I had to clear my throat before I could speak. “I think we’re halfway to Glorious Ingvar. It was like a magic portal in a Forbidding Tale. Look.”
I pointed to the map on the plaque and Zayana looked at it and then at me. “I can’t read the words.”
“Neither can I. I’m just judging by the shape of the continent. Did you speak while we were ... traveling?”
She shook her head. “I won’t be speaking this time, either.”
My eyebrows rose in surprise, but her features took on a firm look. Who would have thought that Zayana could be so relentless? It must be tough to be so far from everything she knew.
I took a deep breath. “I think it’s better if we hold hands.”
She let me take her hand and then we stepped up to the center door. The one that the map showed leading to the spot just outside Glorious Ingvar. We hesitated.
“We could travel the rest of the way on foot,” I offered. “We’ve already saved ourselves days of travel.”
She shook her head determinedly but although I waited for her to say something, she remained steadfastly silent.
“Relentless,” I said and I stepped over the threshold, flinching as the air folded me in and everything went dark again.
This time, when the floor began to rumble and the folding started, I didn’t hesitate. I lifted my heart to the skies and spoke order into the chaos.
“Bear us quickly to our destination but bear us whole and full. Do not let us break or crumble, fade or snap under your folding. We want to be strong and whole. We want to be brave and kind.”
I couldn’t think of what else to say, but I didn’t need to say anything more. The folding began – faster this time. I felt the pull and squeeze of it. Memories bubbled up with their emotions and were folded back in, but I had a strange sensation that I was having trouble holding onto even as the thoughts formed. Were all of those memories mine? Or was it reaching in and pulling up memories I’d been given by the Hissan and folding those in, too? My mind was too busy to analyze it, but my instincts made me shiver at the thought.
It was a matter of seconds until the heaving and folding stopped. But it felt like hours. Emotions I didn’t want and memories I had tried to hold at bay warred in me, leaving me breathless and wrung out like a rag. When – finally – they were done, I was left gasping, my chest heaving, tears leaking down my face. The first thing I heard was a muffled sob as we stepped together across the threshold. Zayana clung to my hand, and the moment we were clear, she wrenched her hand away, hiding her face as she sobbed.
Feeling dazed, I wrapped her into a hug and tried to shake my head clear.
Well. You wouldn’t use those every day, would you? Not even if they saved you months of travel.
“Never again,” Zayana gasped through her tears.
I didn’t echo her. Who knew what might come next? But when I summoned my bees, I was astonished to realize that they were brighter than before. I blew on them, and they seemed to warm with my breath.
“Do you feel – energetic?” I asked Zayana warily.
She frowned. “I shouldn’t feel that way. But I do.” She opened her palms and Flame appeared. “He’s brighter.”
He was larger, too.
I looked over my shoulder at the three yawning mouths with suspicion. What were those things? Perhaps, I shouldn’t have leapt into unknown magic. Anything could have happened – maybe even something far worse than this.
Swallowing, I made my way across the floor. The room was filled with rotting leaves. It was easy to see why. The hole in the top of the structure that lit this room was as wide as my fist and debris fell into the room easily, forming a rotting pile around the plaque. No one had used these undertrails in a very long time.
I frowned. Why would that be? They seemed like something that Ixtap would want to leverage.
I made my way through the drifting leaves to the door and placed my hands on the symbols that had opened the door on the other side.
Nothing happened.
My heart sped up as fear tasted acid in my mouth. I looked back at the yawning mouths.
I did not want to go back in there.
“Don’t tell me that we’re stuck,” Zayana said. She sounded frantic.
I tried to look calm, despite my racing heart and the skittering of my bees in response. Okay, calmly now, Aella. Look for another option.