Page 38 of In Between Darkness
I giggle at this, but her face is serious.
“Everybody gets nervous on the day; it’s fine. You’ll be fine. You’re Nala fucking Reed!” I announce, my voice strong and bold. “And you’ll be an enchanter tomorrow.”
A huge grin appears on her face.
“Thanks, Asha. I knew you would make me feel better.” She presses her cheek against my shoulder.
“What Gift do you think you’ll get?” I pry, taking another bite out of the bread roll and lightly dusting the crumbs off my bed sheets.
“My parents are Influencers so there’s a ninety-five percent chance I will be one too.” She narrows her gaze. “It’s the other five percent that terrifies me.”
I stare knowingly into her eyes. It’s very rare that she will be in that other five percent; if you have parents who both share the same Gift, there is a ninety-five percent chance that the Gods will Gift you the same. However, if your parents share two different Gifts, most likely you will take on one or the other. There is, on the other hand, a rarity that almost never occurs: an enchanter can receive a Gift that neither parent carries. The five percent.
“Whatever Gift you get will be badass, I’m sure of it,” I reassure, making Nala giggle.
“Thanks, Asha. I should probably get ready for bed now. You know, if I wanna be a badass in the morning.” Her grin is contagious and I smile back.
“Good night.”
I watch as she throws her pyjamas on and tucks herself into bed.
It’s been a few hours since Nala got into bed. It is dark and quiet, her faint snoring the only sound sharp enough to slice through the silence. I lay awake in bed envious of Nala, of how she always sleeps so deeply. She drifts off as soon as her head hits the pillow, and she needs to be physically woken in the mornings. I think if I didn’t wake her up, she would probably sleep all day and night, hibernating like a bear in the winter. I wish I could sleep like that. Thoughts race around in my brain, competing to get to the front of my mind. It is impossible to steer them away, to press my foot on their brakes and force them to a halt. They have too much fuel in their tanks.
‘The Sun people aren’t as they seem.’What did Ryder mean when he said this? And why wouldn’t he tell me more? My heart throbs in my chest, and unrest bubbles in my veins. Why did he give me that article and warn me about the Sun people if he wasn’t going to tell me the whole story? How did my hands cut through him like a hot knife through butter? Dream walking… I’m supposed to believe I was actually dream walking? I’ve read countless books and never once came acrossdream walking,but somehow,heknew so much about it. I can feel myself getting antsy as I toss and turn. Like an itch that I can’t quite scratch, these questions are grating on my mind, shredding away at my sanity piece by piece. I have to find answers.
Quietly, I swing my legs off my bed onto the hardwood floor and slink my way to my wardrobe. I step carefully, in an attempt to dodge every creak and moan the grumpy floor might make.I pull out the first jumper I find and stretch it over my head. It’s hard to see in the dark, but I manage to fumble around my wardrobe softly and grab out a pair of grey sweatpants. I shimmy each leg through the openings and tighten its drawstrings at my waist. I then creep out of the door and down the stairs at the end of our hall, remembering the shortcut Charlie told us about.
The courtyard is still and silent. It is dimly lit by the silvery light from the moon. I can’t help but throw my head back and gaze up at the stars above me. There is not a cloud in the sky, and I can see everything with such clarity, each constellation more beautiful than the next. It feels as if time stops for a moment and my eyes get lost in the canvas. I breathe deeply, mesmerised by the spheres of silver light, how they twinkle and glisten and stare back at me like they are beckoning me to touch them. I force myself to look away, breaking the stars’ hypnotism, and remind myself why I am here: The archives. I tiptoe towards the third row of viewing benches and find the hatch hidden in the ground behind the stone; it has a small round iron ring that acts as a handle. I wrap my fingers around the cold metal and pull the heavy platform away from the ground. I have to use a lot of my strength to do this, and my arms almost give out due to the weight, but my grip tightens and I pull again, finally revealing the steep stairs below.
Darkness encloses the space, and the stairs look like they are absorbed into the abyss. I make my way into the darkness and drag my arm against the wall beside me to feel for the light switch. I take each step gingerly and finally make my way to the bottom. The rigid shape of the light switch jostles under my fingers. I press and hear a ‘click’.An army of lights flicker on one by one, disintegrating the darkness. It’s eerie being down here alone. Some remnants of last night’s party still lie in shame on the floor; a chalice here, a jacket there. There are books splayed randomly across the floor with their pages spread open, knockedaimlessly off their shelves and consoled by the ground below. It still smells like liquor, which makes me want to gag a little, but adrenaline keeps me focused.
I head over to the bookcase nearest the stairs and trace my fingers over its wooden edges. There seems to be no logical system in the way the books are displayed. They are not stacked in neat rows or organised by author; they are all jumbled on top of each other in unkempt piles, left to rot. A layer of dust suffocates each cover, and I run my index finger along their faces as if letting them finally take a breath. Some books are left naked, torn away from their hardback frames, exposing their pages for anyone to see.
I am not sure what I’m looking for. I pick up the first book I see and blow it lightly to expel the dust and reveal its title.‘Sun Gods and their Gifts’. I flick through the pages and see each God and their respective Gifts, not one says anything about dream walking or potentially setting people on fire. My eyes drift to the next pile. “Damien Solice - words of an immortal”.Interesting, but not what I’m looking for. I lightly skim through each book waiting for a certain buzzword to capture my attention and jump out at me, but so far, there is nothing. Not a single book or page about any secrets of the Sunkind or about any different abilities other than the Gifts of our Gods.
‘The Enhanced Power of Twins.’My curiosity gets the better of me as I flick through its pages.‘Twins carry twice the amount of power as singletons because they can channel energy from one another no matter the distance. Always connected.’ I have yet to meet twins, they really are a rarity, so I don’t know why I can’t stop reading. ‘Twins have the power to keep each other alive in the instance of one’s death; when in close proximity to one another, the surviving twin acts as a conduit, creating and transferring energy.’
The books cry out to me with interesting but useless knowledge. I feel hopeless, but a glimmer of possibility pulsates in my eyes as they lock onto the door in the corner, the secret door that needs to be opened with a secret book on the shelf. If the Sun people are going to hide anything,of courseit would be in there. I think back to last night with River and make my way over to the same bookshelf. I pull the book titled‘The Evolution of Enchantra’and, sure enough, I hear a faint click behind me.
I crack open the door and slip into the office, pulling the door closed behind me. I walk towards the great oak desk Ty had lounged on, and position myself in front of it, tracing my fingers over the drawers on each side. I can’t help feeling like an impostor. I give the first drawer on the left a little tug. It’s stiff and pulls open with a grunt, but it’s empty. Then, I try the next one. It’s empty too. All the drawers in this column are empty. A sigh escapes my mouth. This may be harder than I anticipated. The right side of the desk has two large drawers. I pull at the metal looped handle, but it doesn’t budge. I try again harder, but there is no movement whatsoever. The next drawer is just as stubborn, its wooden face taunting me as I fail to open it. They are both locked. My fingers trace the wood, inspecting the oak for any ridges or holes that might resemble a lock. Nothing. I slump onto the chair, admitting defeat, but my eyes are intrigued by some wood carvings etched into the top of the desk. A sun and moon have been scratched out on the surface; their deep and precise crevices look like they were made with the tip of a very sharp knife. In between the carvings there is another etching of a small star, however, this does not look as precise, more like it had been scratched as an afterthought; its lines are messy, as if an angry child had done it.
My fingers dance over the smooth indents of the sun and moon and caress each shape lightly. The star feels rougher and,as I run my finger over it gently, a splinter embeds itself into my skin. Instinctively, I yank my hand back towards me. My finger throbs as a drop of blood beads on its surface, and I put it in my mouth to ease the bleeding. I look back at the carvings, their wooden lips cradling my blood like a vampire. Somehow, it looks like my blood is oozing or pulsating as it ripples through each indent. I move in for a closer look. It appears to be shaking and moving, as if it is alive. It bleeds through each crevice, flooding its labyrinth. I feel movement in the desk as my thick blood soaks into the thirsty wood, leaving it bone dry. My body startles, and I jolt back in confusion. A click echoes around the room followed by the scraping of wood from beside me. The drawers are opening…by themselves. It dawns on me that this could be like the enchantment scroll, Influenced to open only with a drop of Sun blood.
I overcome my shock and kneel before the drawers, my knees cold on the hard stone floor. I glance over, its contents now exposed. A thick pile of old papers lay undisturbed, their once white sheets now yellowed with age. I rummage through the paperwork and dust dances off each page, making me cough. I wave the thick air out of my face and glance back at the pages. A lot of it is written in Enchantra,of courseit is. I find it hard to translate, but I can recognise a few words. I think it is a list of names - ‘Moonkind born from Sun’. This must be a record of all the Sun people who gave birth to Moon babies. This isn’t spoken about often, as it is considered shameful. There are stories about people cutting their babies out before sunset so they don’t birth a Moon. The RHE created laws stopping all expectant mothers from interfering with the birth times of their child; ‘All births should be natural and follow the Gods’ plans, anyone that interferes will face the wrath of the Gods’. If a Sun has a Moon baby, it is taken from them and housed in a Moon orphanage, where it will be adopted by a Moon and vice versa.
My knees weaken as I skim through the names, and the pain of a thousand mothers in distress hurtles over me, their own flesh and blood taken from them, leaving a child-shaped hole that can never be filled. We had neighbours that birthed a Moon in my village; we could hear her screams haunting the streets that night. She was never the same after that. I shake my head and snap myself out of those memories, filtering through the pages until one stands out. It looks like a newspaper article. A man and woman share the front page, looking expressionless in their mugshots. The page reads:
‘Moon Child fed to Sky Serpents by Sun Parents!’
I gasp as I read. How could someone do this to a baby?
‘Raye and Phoenix Stormwood of North Palidonia were caught throwing their child into Sky Serpent territory.’
Wait. I know that name.
‘When questioned the mother had no remorse and claimed the child was ‘no child of hers.’
That child was Ryder.
