The amulet was gone, the covenant that I’d hoped
would protect me vanished, and I had a decision to make. I rolled from my face
to my back to stare at the ceiling. It seemed I had been really stupid to come
here without a better plan and now I wondered what I had been thinking, why I
had been so confident I would find a way to save my mother and escape from this
place with the few powers I’d developed over mere months. Clearly, my talents
against the magic of the nereids would be like raindrops on an oil slick, now
it looked like I’d be giving them up to wicked Eudora.
I rolled to my side and read the spines of the
books lining the bookshelf, remembering all the hours I had spent laying on my
bed as a child reading, memorizing the stories. I slumped off the bed, ambled
over to the shelf and pulled out one of my favorites, Matilda, and began to
flip through the pages.
A line jumped off the page as if it had been
waiting for me.
So, Matilda’s
strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those
authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea.
These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.
Suddenly, my senses sharpened and I acutely felt
the smooth cover of the book in my hands and the weight of it on my palms. I
stared at the succession of black typed letters marching boldly across the
yellowing pages and my mind raced after them. I thought of the hours I’d spent
practicing with Ren and Nan and most importantly my books. The primer!
what lies Behind
the eyes commands the hands, the Heart guards the key, an unwise tongue may be
silenced forever.
As if on cue, there was a faint flutter of wings
beyond the door. The primer knew I would end up here! I’d escaped a prison
before and freed little Benjamin to boot. I wasn’t as ill prepared as I
thought. Maybe, just maybe, I could do it again.
As much as I would have liked to prepare, ponder,
practice and practice again before enacting my hasty plan there wasn’t time.
Besides the fact that every moment I spent in the prison sucked on my mental
faculties like a leech, I hadn’t heard the sound of a nereid outside my door in
hours. If there was a creature that could lead me to my mother beyond it, now
was the time to find out.
For mind manipulation to work I needed to not only
grasp the nereid’s attention but stir its emotions, a task I wasn’t sure was
even possible. With a deep breath I jumped to my feet and rushed toward the
door hoping I wasn’t too late. I pounded furiously on it and yelled,
“Hello! I’ve made a decision! I need to speak with
Eudora right away!”
There was no sound on the other side of the door
so I continued to pound and shout until my fist ached. I waited for a response.
The doorknob turned. I stepped back allowing the door to swing wide and
mentally prepared for attack.
The creature on the other side gave me a shock.
Expecting the scylla, I was surprised to see the sprite nereid smirking in the
tunnel.
“Eudora will be so pleased to hear your decision.”
She said in a tinkling voice. Her large amber eyes narrowed and searched my
face as her mossy green wings began to spread behind her. I needed to get her
attention fast before she called the scylla.
“Does Eudora share the powers she steals from
others with you?” It was a dangerous question but the only thing I could think
of with the potential to stop the nereid in her tracks and peak her emotions,
if she had any.
She cocked her head and her gaze widened with
intrigue. One edge of her smile rose leaving an expression of contempt. Bingo.
The question stirred something in her and right now, I wasn’t picky.
“What’s your name? I don’t think we were ever
properly introduced.” I asserted quickly drawing her in further.
The mossy wings slowly collapsed behind her and
the nereid shifted from foot to foot before me considering her response.
“Mizell.” She snapped staring intently at my face.
This was my chance. I pressed the issue further.
“Well, does Eudora share or does she keep all her
spoils for herself?” I bated Mizell. As she considered the question, I set to
work.
Take me to my mother. Take me to my mother. Take me to my mother.
Mizell’s gaze remained fixed on mine but I
couldn’t detect whether the mind manipulation procedure was working or not.
Nothing changed in those large glassy eyes and it was impossible to see past
them into her mysterious nereid mind.
Yet. She didn’t answer the question.
I doubled my effort.
Take me to my mother take me to my mother take me to my mother take me
to my mother take me to my mother.
Mizell’s lithe hand shot from her side and
fastened around my wrist like a vise. Her already large feline eyes expanded even
wider as she stared into mine. Her green wings exploded behind her and flapped,
folding around me, their edges grazed my shoulders.
Then her gaze broke from mine and she stared off
down a tunnel I hadn’t been taken before. My heart lifted. Maybe it had worked.
I continued to chant the instruction in my head, over and over again, just to
be sure.
Take me to my mother take me to my mother take me to my mother.
Mizell’s wings flapped and she floated off the
ground. Her fingers remained tightly fastened around my wrist and my arm
stretched high in the air along with her. My feet lifted off the ground and in
a flash we were off.
Mizell soared down the tunnel, with me dangling
loosely at her side. I swayed and wriggled in the air, like a kite in the
breeze but was too concerned with breaking her concentration to protest. We
dashed and darted down tunnel after tunnel, some wide, others narrow until we
arrived at another door. This one made my heart leap to my throat.
It was the back door of our house in Moco! The top
of the white painted door was glass. Neat gingham curtains obscured the view
inside. If my mother was hidden anywhere in the nereid catacombs, she was
behind that door, I was certain of it.
Mizell’s wings slowed and she gracefully sank to
the floor. Without wings to temper my landing, I fell with a thud onto the
polished white stone. I scrambled to my feet and looked up at Mizell to assess
her mood. She stood silent and as blank as the scylla, staring at the door.
There was no doubt the procedure had worked but now I wasn’t sure what to do
next.
I moved toward the door and reached for the
doorknob. It was locked. I knocked. There was no sound from the other side.
Anxiously, I glanced back at Mizell, who remained blank faced and knocked
again.
Finally, there was a rustling movement from the
other side. The doorknob turned and as the door cracked, my breath caught in my
chest. I blinked discovering that Shadows did not cry when she finally stood
before me.
“Mother!” I choked.
My mother stood in the doorway smiling but her
eyes were wide and vacant.
“Hello.” She answered pleasantly though it was
obvious she didn’t recognize me.
“Mother, it’s me Eliza! I’m here... I’m here to
take you home.” I stammered quickly reaching for her hand.
My mother’s hand was cold and limp in mine and she
pulled away from me when I tried to tug her across the threshold. Her brow
creased with confusion when she looked at me. It was as if she didn’t really
see me, like she looked straight through me.
It was then that I recognized the face before me,
not from my childhood or photographs but somewhere else… the cistern in Nan’s
greenhouse. The woman standing before me was not my mother. She was someone
else, a shell of the woman she was when she was kidnapped.
“I was just frosting a cake. Would you like to
come inside and have a piece?” She asked cheerfully as if she hadn’t heard a
word I said.
I shot a wary glance back at Mizell to make sure
she was safely enchanted before agreeing to step inside. Just as my bedroom had
been transferred to the nereid realm, the kitchen was eerily identical to the
actual room in our home. Half of the white cupboards were open revealing baking
ingredients and cookware and the counters were strewn with flour and sugar,
eggs and pans. A warm sweet smell filled the room and for an instant I was
completely transported to a happy space in my memory.
It was a wicked illusion. Standing in my kitchen
with my mother, the scent of cake wafting around me. It could have been a
birthday, a holiday or an everyday celebration but it wasn’t. We were prisoners
and the woman standing next to me had no idea who I was.
Mother glided across the floor and spooned
homemade icing from a bowl below the mixer onto a yellow cake. I desperately
needed to reach her. There had to be some remnant of me hidden in her memory
that the fairy realm had not corrupted.
“What’s the occasion?” I asked carefully, watching
her expression.
She looked up from the task of frosting and stared
across the room, a puzzled expression crossed her face.
“Occasion?” She asked as if the concept hadn’t
occurred to her.
“Well, usually people make a cake for special
occasions like a birthday or something.” I explained.
Mother’s forehead creased as she thought about my
question.
“Oh, well, I suppose there’s a reason but I can’t
remember it now.” She responded dismissively with a shrug and returned to her
frosting.
She began to hum, a song I remembered. I hummed
along with her. She heard me singing and looked up again and furrowed her brow.
“Have we met before?” She asked studying my face.
“Oh yes, you’ve known me my whole life. I’m your
daughter, Eliza.” I said gently.
A look of disbelief crossed mother’s face and she
shook her head as if she didn’t understand what I’d just told her.
I tapped my toes against the wooden floor. The
scent of home was deceiving and I could feel myself losing focus. I needed to
get out of there and I had to get my mother to come with me.
“Listen, Nia, that’s your name isn’t it?” I asked.
“Maybe.” Mother answered again with a shrug.
“Ok, well, Nia, I need you to come with me now. I
promise that we can make a cake when we get out of here.” I added impatiently
and moved toward the counter to grasp her hand.
When I took her hand she looked up at me, really
looked at me. I could tell she was desperately trying to place me. There was a
glimmer of hope.
“You seem familiar.” She said thoughtfully.
“I’m sure I do.” I added with a hint of sarcasm
and tugged her away from the counter.
“But my cake…” She said, her voice trailing as she
glanced toward the half frosted cake on the counter.
“We’ll make another one as soon as we get out of
here. Really, I promise. Please, we need to go.” I said hastily and finally
tugged her out the door.
My mother glanced around the tunnel. Her face
contorted in an expression of confusion and fright. I rushed toward Mizell.
“Mizell.” I said firmly.
Mizell turned her large cat eyes toward mine and a
creeping feeling spread across my shoulders. Something fierce flashed in her
gaze and I knew instantly that I’d lost her. Wings of panic took flight in my
chest.
“Eliza.” Mizell’s voice sliced through me like a
shard of glass and her eyes narrowed to slits.
I held mother’s hand tightly and frantically
searched the tunnels before us but it was no use. Mizell’s wings were spread
and she was antagonistically flitting around us like a bird of prey. The
distant whir of approaching wings flooded from the tunnels around us. Within
seconds the scylla surrounded us.
“You may have fooled me once, Eliza, but it won’t
happen again. I look forward to learning that little trick of yours once you’ve
handed it over to Eudora.” She snapped.
Fearful of exciting the scylla, I clamped my mouth
shut and stood closer to my mother. Her eyes grew wide and she looked even more
confused as if she’d never seen the nereids before, which couldn’t have been
possible. I wondered how long she’d been trapped in the kitchen.
“Take them, both of them.” Mizell ordered fiercely
to the scylla.
They closed in on us. With the hopes of avoiding
separation, I wrapped my arms tightly around my mother. She automatically clung
to me in return but it didn’t matter. The scylla pulled us apart and bundled
each of us in tentacles. I frantically peered through the tentacles around my
head to watch the cocoon that was my mother disappear down one of the tunnels
before the scylla carrying me soared after it.
My confidence shattered, I resigned myself to
handing over my powers to Eudora the instant I had a chance. I hoped my stunt
with Mizell didn’t give Eudora the excuse she was hoping for to keep us from
leaving Merepen Hallow. The drone of the scylla’s beating wings punctuated the
crestfallen thud I felt in my chest, where my heart should have been beating.
The whir of the wings began to die down until the
only sound I heard was the rhythmic flapping of the pair that carried me toward
Eudora. We were close. I pinched my eyes closed and struggled to focus on the
task at hand. The time I’d spent in the fairy realm blurred my concentration
and made it difficult for me to think clearly.
By the time we arrived in Eudora’s forum, I was
methodically repeating my intentions over and over again in my head. Staying
clearheaded was the only way my mother and I would never escape. The tentacles
slipped and with them I tumbled to the ground with a thud.
“I understand you’ve made a decision, Eliza.”
Eudora’s voice boomed and echoed against the high walls of the cavernous room.
Everything was growing fuzzy and confusion began to
gnaw on the edges of my mind. I struggled to hang on to my consciousness. I
searched the room quickly and found mother sprawled across the floor on the
other side of the room.