Alive (The Veiled World Book 1) (7 page)

Chapter 7

Amber

“So why aren’t you there with them?” I asked Axel.

A muscle in his jaw twitched. Okay, so maybe I was being a little harsh. Asking someone why he wasn’t dead yet wasn’t exactly the nicest thing to say. But all this crazy information was overwhelming and a part of me wanted to out this guy for being a phoney. Because then the crazy stories about bringing the dead back to life would also be fake.

But if he’s not a phoney, then all of this is real.

The cabin darkened, but it wasn’t like average nighttime darkness. It was intermittent, moving and swirling past the windows like the sand had done. But where the sand had been golden and bright, these shadows came in various shades of gloom, letting in only tiny streams of light here and there.

My stomach swirled itself into a tight knot and I imagined my insides resembling that of a dark coil, much like whatever it was outside. This could not be happening. I was in bed, dreaming. Dad would wake me up at the crack of dawn soon to go feed the dogs and the chickens. If Dad didn’t wake me, then our rooster, Elvis, would.

“Hey, are you all right?”

I blinked, flinching at the hands waving over my eyes, and felt my cheeks warm as I locked eyes with Axel, who was at this moment only inches away from me. Sweat coated his forehead and his body radiated warmth.

He was very much real.

I shivered. So maybe this wasn’t a dream.

“I’m okay,” I said, rubbing my goose-prickled arms. “I just zoned out.”

“Zoned out? You mean you were daydreaming?”

I shrugged and inched away from him, the cool metal of the aeroplane against my back. The guy’s familiarity and closeness was freaking me out. “Something like that,” I said. But he wasn’t taking a hint. He sat down beside me, his head lolling back against the cushioned headrest that was a little askew from the crash landing.

“You asked me why I wasn’t dead like the others.”

Jacob appeared, his jaw stiff and shoulders tense. I met his terror-filled gaze and nodded as if to say it was going to be okay, even though nothing about being stuck in Bruce Harvey’s aeroplane, in another dimension, in the middle of a
Chang
e, was okay.

“So why
are
you alive?” Jacob asked, fists clenched by his sides, the tension inside of him morphing into anger on the outside, like it always did back home. He must have been worried sick about his brothers back home. I wondered if his mother would finally step up and be the responsible one now that Jacob wasn’t around to do it for her.

Axel cleared his throat, masking a bitter laugh. “Because the king hates his biological son and thinks of me as his own flesh and blood. He just told me so.”

By the look of Axel’s clenched fists and flushed cheeks he didn’t like the idea of being the king’s favourite.

“So you’re lucky, then, to not have died like the others your age?” I asked, wanting to know why on earth he was so mad about being alive.

He fixed me with a dark stare and sighed. “No. I’m far from lucky. I
want
to go to the Land of Resting Souls. Most people with dead loved ones do.”

I nodded and stared out the window, into the swirling, shadowy abyss, wondering who Axel had lost.

He sat up and shifted in his seat.

“My brother,” Axel said suddenly, his voice soft, his hands gripping the armrests. “He was only five.”

Jacob released a long held breath and his fists relaxed.

“I lost my brother too,” I said. The cabin turned silent. Even the storm or whatever it was outside stopped lashing the plane. “And I’m Amber, by the way.”

He nodded and said, “Axel,” even though I’d heard him introduce himself to Jacob earlier.

“Who did you lose?” Axel asked Jacob. But Jacob didn’t seem to hear. He was gripping the top of our seat, his dark eyes shifting from the windows to the ceiling of the plane. Axel continued speaking. “I take it the one who flies this thing brought those who have lost someone close to their hearts with him. The king always encourages surviving visitors to return with people who are hungry to raise the dead. Most promise to return but almost all never do.” He shrugged. “I suppose dying for the dead doesn’t have much of an appeal to it.”

I shivered. “Sounds like a bad horror film.”

“What’s a bad horror film?” asked Axel.

“I lost my dad,” said Jacob, his skin shiny with perspiration.

Silence followed, except for the sounds of our breaths.

“I’m sorry to hear,” said Axel to Jacob before fixing his eyes on me. “How long has it been since your brother died?”

My eyes briefly met Jacob’s before returning to Axel’s.

“Six months.”

Axel’s gaze roved from my head to my feet and back up. Not in a sexual way, but in an assessing attributes kind of way. I shifted in my seat.

“So you’re most likely feeling fresh grief. That’s good, good for a challenger.” He turned to Jacob. “How long since your father passed?”

“Eight years ago,” said Jacob, so softly it was barely audible. “But time doesn’t make me grieve him any less.”

Axel nodded. “Very good. The more you miss your loved ones the harder you’ll fight to reach the Land of Resting Souls.”

“Do we have to fight people?” Jacob asked, the tension returning to his jaw.

“People, creatures, elements, nature, you must fight it all to reach your dead loved ones.” Axel looked Jacob up and down like he had done me. “Lucky you look decently built.” His eyes flashed to mine and he flicked his sandy fringe aside and half smiled. “I hope you don’t mind me saying so, but you appear strong for a girl. I bet you could lay Ollie flat in half a second.” He laughed to himself, as though picturing it inside his head. But I wasn’t worried about that. He was talking as though Jacob and I had a chance at making it to this Land of Resting Souls place.

“So how many from your home, I mean your kingdom, have made it to the Land of Resting Souls?”

Axel leaned over my legs, careful not to touch me, and stared out the window. The darkness was fading and being replaced with more light which shone against his face, illuminating his blue eyes. Despite the light, I could see nothing of distinction outside the plane. No land. No sky.

“The
Change
normally doesn’t take this long,” he mumbled beneath his breath.

“How many?” Jacob demanded, his voice gruff. He was losing patience and I couldn’t blame him. “How many have made it to this resting place of the dead?”

Axel hung his head and slumped forward in the chair his was lounging on.

“Two, out of millions.”

I shook my head in disbelief.

“Great odds,” said Jacob, echoing my very next thought.

“So Bruce has brought us here to die,” I said, my voice strangely calm. Maybe it was because death wasn’t so strange anymore. Death meant Sam.

Jacob swore. I knew he was thinking of his younger siblings.

Axel shook his head and straightened his back. “I’ve known this for years and it still hasn’t killed my hope at seeing my little brother again, at putting the long forgotten smile back on my mother’s face.” He stared back and forth between us. “We can do this. We three are strong, and you both seem smart. Don’t you want to bring your father back, Jacob? And your brother, Amber?”

Of course I did. I wanted nothing more.

“I do, but, it just seems like…like the odds are against us.”

Axel nodded and squinted at the brightness streaming in from outside. “The odds are against us, but nobody has studied the
Change
and the shifting heavenly landscapes, and all the information recorded over the years. With our strength and our brains we can do this.”

My belly stirred as though there might be hope, that we may have a chance at bringing Sam home to Mum and Dad. Jacob was almost half smiling, as though he was starting to believe this crazy stuff as well.

“So what do we have to do?”

Something sloshed against the side of the plane.

Axel cocked his head. “Listen,” he said, and twisted to stare out the window, where blinding, moving light now beamed into the cabin. “Did you hear that? The
Change
is over.”

I heard nothing at first, but soon enough a small, graceful shape soared past the window, casting a brief shadow against me. It shrieked.

“A bird!”

Jacob rushed for the door but before he could open it Axel shouted, “Stop!”

Jacob froze, his hands on the hatch.

Light danced across Axel’s face, beneath his chin and neck. Back and forth it moved. Whatever it was outside, it was moving.

“Water,” said Axel, his voice was filled with defeat. “The desert sand has become water. We are surrounded by sea.”

Chapter 8

Axel

On my nod, Jacob carefully opened the hatch. Every muscle in my body tensed. Though I’d seen land on the horizon, and the castle, through the window, I wasn’t certain as to whether water was going to flood the aircraft or not.

“It doesn’t look too deep.” Jacob’s eyes were wide with excitement as he peered over his shoulder at us.

He allowed the hatch to open fully, letting in an arch of golden light. The sun was setting. Had we been in there for hours? Surely not. I’d never known a
Change
to take so long.

“The castle’s still there,” said Amber, her fair hair tickling my arm as she bent between Jacob and me to see. “It didn’t change.”

“No, remember, just the landscape changes, all human-made things stay the same,” I replied, staring at the glinting castle which was no longer surrounded by jungle, but by what appeared to be an English rose garden. Ruby red and apricot blooms spilled over the stone walls of the kingdom and climbed the glass towers of the castle.

“It’s beautiful,” said Amber. “And if the water’s shallow, we should be fine. It’s not a huge distance. It’ll be easy to swim across.”

Jacob nodded and dragged his shirt up and over his head. He tossed it to the floor and turned to me, awaiting my direction.

My stomach sank. There was no avoiding the truth. My truth.

“It’s not that simple. There are hidden dangers in every new landscape. See those roses? Most likely the most beautiful you will ever see.” Jacob and Amber stared at me, impatient, their bodies twitching with their need to escape the aeroplane and join with the others. “Their thorns could perhaps carry poison.”

“Really?” asked Amber, as though disappointed. She shrugged and said quickly, “So we won’t go picking roses anytime soon.” She looked at Jacob. “Let’s go.”

“Wait!”

They both turned to stare back at me, the setting sun highlighting their strong, muscular silhouettes. “Usually anything that grows within the kingdom’s walls,” I came between them and pointed to the endless stone wall that surrounded the kingdom and castle, “is quite safe.”

“So you’re saying the only danger lies outside the kingdom.”

“Yes.” I swallowed thickly as I stared out across the glistening water, trepidation swirling in my belly. “Everything outside the kingdom is trying to keep us away. The woman, Leirza, who guards the Land of Resting Souls, does everything she can to keep the living out of it.”

“So how did you and the king and everyone else end up in this place…this dimension?”

“Same as you. Our ancestors are all travellers, explorers, soldiers from war ships who found themselves here. They built this place over time.”

“But where are their ships and aircrafts?” asked Jacob.

“Over the years, the changing landscapes, shifting sands and seas, have covered them over. But they are still here beneath us.”

Amber stared across the sunlit water and shivered, and by the look on her face, everything was registering, the truth of it all. “So all the people of the kingdom were originally stranded here and made a life for themselves and their future generations, only to then die seeking their dead loved ones, is that right?”

“My father was one of them. He went seeking the soul of my brother and never returned.”

“But how do you know that he’s dead? What if…” Amber’s eyes widened slightly. “What if he’s alive, along with the others? What if this
lady
has them all?”

“This is too crazy,” muttered Jacob. “I want to get off this plane and find the others. We need to find Bruce and get him to fly us home.”

Amber nodded, but then she reached out and touched Jacob’s arm just as he was about to dive in.

He brought his arms back down to his sides.

“I’m staying,” she said, her face calm and her blue eyes serious.

“What?”

“I’m staying here, in this place,” she repeated, flicking a quick glance at me. “I want to bring my brother back. I want to go to the Land of Resting Souls.”

Jacob stared at her for a long time before he looked at the water. “That’s easy for you to say; you don’t have a bunch of kids depending on you at home. I’ve got a family waiting for me.”

Amber stiffened and she took a step away from Jacob. His words had hurt her. A sudden urge to shove Jacob into the water consumed me.

“But what if you brought your dad back?” she said, her voice becoming animated with excitement again. “Think of what that would do for your family.”

Jacob’s hands bunched into fists. “I’m not listening to this.” He brought his arms up beside his head and dived into the water.

“Are you insane? There are dangers in these waters.”

Jacob didn’t answer me and kept swimming after his dark head bobbed up through the surface of the sea, shoving one arm after another into the water, in a way I’d never be able to.

Amber, getting ready to dive in herself, hesitated and turned to face me. Her eyes looked me up and down and then her lips made an “oh” shape.

“You can’t swim.”

Blood burned beneath my cheeks as shame flooded every inch of me. But I nodded. No use lying now. I was going to drown anyway. May as well be honest until the day I die.

“With the
Change
there’s not much room for learning to swim. By the time you get used to water, it’s gone and replaced with something else. And Prince Ollie is a slavedriver so I don’t have much of a chance to learn even when there is water.”

“That’s okay. I know how to do the safety swim. I’ve got my bronze medallion.”

“Look, I don’t know what the safety swim or the bronze medallion is, but I’m too heavy. Yes, you’re tall and strong but…I’ll sink you.” Panic raised my pulse. There was so much water.

“Wait!” Amber bent and poked around under the nearest seat and came out with a small bundle of something that was bright yellow. “Put this on! It’s an inflatable vest. It’ll keep you afloat.”

She unravelled it and slipped it over my head. It was a tight fit, but I could still breathe, and I quite enjoyed the way her hands felt when they brushed against my shoulders and neck. Aside from my mother and the cook who had pinched my cheeks my entire life, Amber was the first female of my own age who had ever touched me.

She frowned then took hold of a small string dangling on my side. “Pull this.”

I did, and jumped when the thing started to fill with air.

“It’ll choke me! Get it off!” I shouted in a panic, my fingers clawing at the growing thing.

She smiled and put her hands on my shoulders. “It won’t. You’re a big boy but it will save you. Trust me. Now were going to have to go in.” She thought for a moment and said, “Wait,” before disappearing into the cabin and fossicking around in a metal tub and returning with two knives.

By now the thing had stopped inflating and I relaxed a little.

“Those are blunt,” I said before reaching into my back pocket for my blade. I flicked it and proudly allowed the blade to wink in the golden twilight sun. “My great-grandfather arrived here on a war ship. This was his knife. One that saved his life many times over.” I wished my father had taken it with him on his journey to the Land of Resting Souls.

She nodded. “Cool. But I’m still keeping one of these.” She dropped one and tucked a single dull blade into the front of her dress, between her breasts. I wasn’t sure how it stayed there, in position like that, and was going to ask if she had some kind of a belt in there, when she took a hold of my hand and jumped, pulling me into the water with her.

Icy cold water clouded my head. I was going to die. Scrambling, my arms clawed my way up to the light, until my head pierced the surface.

My arms flapped against the water, desperate to keep my head up.

A firm hand clamped around my arm.

“Calm down. Just stay calm.”

Amber wrapped her arm around my neck, positioned herself behind me and told me to float on my back, which, after trying several times, I did. Salt water stung the inside of my nose, and not to mention my as yet unhealed wounds from the salting the guards had given me.

“Stay calm, everything will be okay. You’ll stay afloat and I’ll swim with one arm and get us to shore,” she said between breaths.

Breathing in and out, I willed my heart to settle into a steady rhythm, but it was difficult to do when visions of my brother’s still, pale face slipping below the surface of the river he’d drowned in kept appearing inside my head.

“You’re doing great,” she shouted, her teeth chattering against my cheek.

The aeroplane was getting smaller. She was doing a good job, we were already several metres away from the plane.

“I need to get…one of those bronze medallion things,” I spluttered. She shushed me for distracting her.

A couple of minutes later she said, “I can touch the ground with my feet, but only if I put my head under. Soon you should be able to stand.”

I heard shouting from the shore and twisted around to see.

“What’s he on about?”

Amber stopped swimming and I clawed at her arm again only to see Jacob waving his hands about, shouting at us and pointing at something behind us.

“What?” I shouted, and at that time realised that I could, in fact, stand. I took hold of Amber’s shoulders and set her on her feet.

He was saying…oh shit, he was screaming, “Crocodile!”

“Get out of the water!” Jacob shouted. Two guards were with him, waving at us, but I knew they wouldn’t get into the water because they couldn’t swim either. Not many from the kingdom could.

Amber screamed and raised her knife, her eyes frantically searching the water.

I turned just in time to see the crocodile’s head disappear beneath the water. It surged forward, creating an arrow shape in the water, an arrow that was pointing right at us.

“Get to shore!” I shouted at her, relieved to finally be able to assist
her
in some way. I flipped my knife out just as the beast grazed my belly and continued towards Amber. She couldn’t die. There was no way she was going to die today. Not after surviving the
Change
.

There was nothing else to do but lunge at it and stab at it with my knife. The creature thrashed beneath me, bowling me over when my knife finally struck through its tough exterior to spear flesh. The knife slipped out of my grasp, it was so deep in the beast’s flesh.

“No!” I shouted as Jacob dragged me away. I couldn’t leave my grandfather’s knife behind.

I shook him free and threw myself at the shore, my hands seizing hold of the knife and yanking it free. The crocodile snapped at me, and I rolled out of the way, saving my face by an inch. The lifesaving device I wore burst against the blade and deflated almost instantly. The sound seemed to have frightened the creature because though it snapped its jaw once more, it then sank back into the water until its body, then its head, and finally, its beady eyes, disappeared beneath the surface.

Two shadows loomed over me and when I shielded my eyes with a hand and looked up, the two guards stood smirking down at me. Heaven forbid they thank me for saving a prized challenger.

“You’re welcome,” I said, folding my blade away and tucking it into my sopping wet pocket.

They continued to smirk.

“You’re needed for the preparations. The feast is about to begin.”