Page 14 of Up from the Earth

Only three words to explain whatever the hell was going on, and they did nothing to aid me. I glanced back at The King toward the lake. It was ice-still and silver, the dim illumination reflecting off its surface like mercury glass.

“I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean.” Immediately, I noted the irritation behind my tone, and fear rumbled through my empty stomach; I hadn’t intended to be so coarse, but confusion was hardly a state I enjoyed. “Please, what are the Bride Trials? Why am I here?”

It was like looking into the face of the stone sculpture, talking to this ancient, enormous being that transcended rational thought. My mind wanted to snap, to fray at the edges, and take the time to readjust. But I could hardly do that now. There was no time, and I knew that down to the marrow of my bones. However, the source of the information was unknown.

“They are trials designed and meant entirely for you and no one else. Should you fail them, this realm is surely over. There is no one else.”

My mouth dropped open, indignation firing in my veins. “You can’t be serious. You have no backup plan, no one else that you can call on to step in if I’m not able to do this?”

“No.”

It was simple and direct. Something I was learning was the default for this version of The Beast King. There were no soft edges here or masked seduction intent on swallowing down all I had to offer. There was only command—and expected obedience.

“I am just twenty-one years old. I haven’t completed my formal training, as I told the other you, and yet you still expect me to do this. Can’t you see the insanity of that faith in my abilities?”

“What is sane to the spider is chaos to the fly.” I’d heard the idiom before but never spoken by a being who I was unshakably sure wasalwaysthe spider. “What may seem outlandish or impossible to you—Cerridwen Adaire Locke—is simply the promised acts of fate coming into fruition for me.”

My bones radiated as he spoke my name. I could sense that reverberating magic, the same magic I’d felt as a child, singing through my blood, my soul.

The Beast King turned from me, his hooded face directed to the serene lake behind him. He stepped up to the edge of the bank, the waters lapping at the trailing fabric of his robes. They barely made a sound. Nothing seemed to be here, and even our voices seemed flat and utterly lacking any echo or resonance.

He said nothing else, and just as I was about to ask for still more clarification, he disappeared beneath the water. I could sense the pull to go to him, to find him beneath the waves, as sure as a physical tug on my sternum. It was ludicrous. I was mortal, nothing more than a fragile human, and I would surely drown.

As I stood there, my heart too loud in my ears, a skeletal hand slipped free of the silvery lake, hooking a finger to beckon me forward.

Dammit. I’m really supposed to follow him?

There was no response save for the continued gesture from The Beast King. I stepped forward until I reached the shoreline, the freezing waters rushing over my bare feet, still as quiet as ever. I wasn’t a strong swimmer, and something told me that turning over onto my back—like I did when I was enjoying the warm spring sun in the river near the coven house—would not be acceptable.

Sucking in a lungful of air, I pushed my foot along the sand. Icy water reached me up to the ankle, and I hissed. The cold was enough to be painful, and it doubled, tripled, as I stuck the other foot into the sand. I was immediately racked with shakes, trembling so much that my teeth knocked together. My muscles seized up, squeezing down on my bones in protest.

I had to force myself to keep going, the stubborn image of a sunny day my only focus. As the waves grew more substantial, more of the frigid water slipped over me, reaching up to my calves, then knees, then thighs. The flimsy nightdress I wore did nothing to insulate my body from the cold, and it tangled between my legs.

“Useless thing.”

Gripping the floating hem of my dress, I yanked it over my head. There was no point in being bashful. Soaked with water, the fabric would reveal me anyhow, so I pitched the nightgown over my shoulder and forced myself to sink deeper into the water.

The new depths were a shock, the water sloshing up to my hips and belly now. I was wrong to expect a perfectly graded slope, and with one more step, I slipped, the lake swallowing me up. Fighting to swim, the aching cold left my movements uncoordinated and sloppy. It felt like hundreds of needles were being jabbed into my flesh.

There were too many floundering attempts to keep my head above water stacked up, one after the other. My head sank beneath the freezing lake, plunging the world into darkness. The pain in my eyes was immediate and intense. Some innate instinct to survive encouraged my legs to kick faster and my arms to stroke quicker.

No, not like this.

Oxygen filled my lungs once more as my face finally breached the surface. However, this short-lived ecstasy was over too quickly, and the buoyancy I felt in leaping through the waves sputtered. The water overtook me again, and I sank further,deeper.

Do something, Cerri. Do something.

But more of the world was drifting away above me, and the cold was sapping the strength from my muscles. All there was to do was sink. I would not go out that way. I did everything I could to propel myself back up to the surface, but the burn in my lungs from holding my breath crescendoed.

When I could no longer stand it, when my body took over, I opened my mouth, breathing in the black liquid of this underworld lake. That was all it took. Sensations of horrible fire coating the inside of my lungs became my universe. My body spasmed, and the seconds dragged on.

I would die like this. I would drown.

Let go.

The voice filled my mind like hot tea filling a cup. It was not The Beast King’s. It was not my own. Though, there was something of me in it, something I could not place and did not recognize.

Let go, Cerridwen.

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