Pierrot's Song

Chapter 3 - Desecration-2

‘I’m bored,’ Sim said, and to punctuate the thought he thrust Luka’s hand into the flames again. The resulting scream echoed through the cavern. ‘If we’re stuck here, we should at least have some fun.’

Bray nodded. ‘No one would ever know.’

Mina’s thoughts raced across all the things she had done in Tarya so far. This was not the time for healing, though that would be needed soon. Tracing people’s golden threads would be of no use. She could change herself into a dove again, but that would only allow her to escape, leaving her friends trapped in the darkness. Mourini wanted her for what she could do in Tarya, but she could not see how any of her abilities could be of use to someone so bent on destruction and pain. Her gifts seemed singularly unsuitable to be used for any kind of attack, and she would not want to anyway. She couldn’t bear to think about how to harm others.

But this did not mean she was defenceless. She was gaining recognition as a storyteller. She had been noticed at the Festival of Lights because what she did was different. Maybe she could not guess how Mourini, or this mysterious Ellechino who seemed to work for him, might want to use her gifts, but that was not what mattered. They were her gifts and no one else could use them as she could.

Music broke into her thoughts. Luka was humming softly, the same haunting melody that had called the souls from the River. An ancient song left by the princesses, or muses, or whomever they might be. With a smile and a moment of complete clarity, Mina slipped into Tarya. Despite all she had learned since, perhaps her first discovery about Tarya would be most useful now. She had stood against darkness before.

The Place of Dreams stretched out before her, vast and beautiful in all its pastel glory. Mina realised with a start she had spent less time here recently than at the River. Why go to the pale shadow of the world when you could go to the source of life? But what she needed now was trickery and illusion, not the depths belonging to the far reaches of Tarya. She would not stand back and watch her friends, or this sacred place, be desecrated.

Mina strode into the cavern, arms raised. She saw both the shadowed, rocky chamber and the Place of Dreams. No one spoke—they stared at her, waiting, and she felt no need to break the silence. Sofia had taught her to catch the attention of the audience before beginning. She stopped a dozen steps from the flaming bowl and raised her arms slowly. Nothing happened, and she felt the clutch of panic. It was like the first time she had stood onstage, unsure what to say, dread silence growing to terrible proportions.

Sim let out a wicked giggle and dipped Luka’s hand in the vivid flame once more. Luka screamed, making Sim laugh in satisfaction, but at the same time he looked directly at Mina. Even as he cried out in apparent agony, he winked. And Mina saw a way.

She swept her hands down and then up again, and the bowl erupted with a great burst of light. Flames leaped with hungry ferocity, reaching for the men. Sim retreated several steps, fell on his backside, then picked himself up and ran for the cave exit without a backward glance.

Bray looked at his boss, who shook his head. ‘Don’t you dare …’

But the words were barely out of his mouth before Bray turned, the gold book box still in his hands, and also fled the cavern.

‘No,’ Luka cried, his voice barely audible over the growing crackle of the flames, which were leaping higher and higher and flickering with streaks of a strange, vivid scarlet.

Mina took a step closer, and Sofia stood, both facing the remaining man. Sofia began to raise her own arms, in a gesture similar to the one Mina had used. The man shifted toward them, but Mina saw the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. With a whispered command to the illusory flame and a circular motion of her hand, purely for effect, she made the fire draw inward, beginning to encircle the remaining thug. He looked to the left and right, saw the circle of fire closing in on him, and darted through the remaining gap. But he didn’t flee. Instead, he ran straight up to Mina.

Mina realised she had assumed he was more reasonable, since he hadn’t been the one committing the violence. But he had been the one who commanded it. His breath on her face smelled sickly sweet as he hissed at her.

‘You’ll never get out of here. We’ll block the entrance and you can burn to death in your own fire!’

He turned and made a point of walking unhurriedly to the cave exit. A moment later, true to his promise, they heard shouting, followed by resounding crashes.

Letting the flames that filled the room drop away to nothingness, Mina ran to Luka, who was huddled on the floor next to the great bowl. His face was chalk white and his chest rose and fell with shallow breaths.

Gently taking his arm by the elbow, Mina examined his hand. ‘Is it badly burned?’

She expected to see blisters and reddened skin, but his long fingers were as white as always, apparently untouched by the still-burning flame in the great bowl. But there was no relief in this, for his fingers were splayed at odd angles, and bruises were already discolouring the skin.

‘Oh, oh, your hands. What have they done?’

‘I suspect they might have broken a finger or two.’

‘Why aren’t you burned?’

Luka shrugged. ‘See for yourself,’ he said.

Sofia crossed to the burning bowl and tentatively reached for the flames. A tremendous crash filled the cavern, followed by a triumphant shout, making her jump and pull her hand back before she made contact with the flame. The cavern became darker.

‘I think they’ve managed to block the entrance,’ she said, hurrying to the doorway. Shards of light sliced across her hands as she tested the rocks now barring the way out.

‘It’s okay, I can feel them moving,’ she said as she returned to the centre of the cavern. ‘We’ll be able to unblock it easily.’ Swiftly she passed her hand over the flames in the great bowl. A look of surprise crossed her face, and without a second’s delay she plunged her hand into the liquid beneath the flickering blaze.

‘It doesn’t burn! It’s cool to the touch.’

Mina looked at Luka’s hands, which continued to swell even as she watched. She swiftly urged him to a standing position. Being careful only to touch the upper part of his arm, she lowered his broken fingers into the flaming bowl.

‘The coolness will stop the bruising and swelling … I hope,’ she explained.

Luka’s legs trembled so they could barely hold him up. Mina reached for Tarya, picturing crystal pools and the rushing, iridescent waterfall. She silently called on the energy she had once found to heal herself when she had been on the very verge of death. Almost instantly, a golden light appeared, streaming down over Luka’s head and shoulders, then flowing into his broken hand. A glow flared, almost too bright to look at. The flames in the bowl turned a brilliant gold. In their depths were flickers of myriad colours, like a living opal. Then the flow of light slowed and the flames died down again.

Holding Luka’s arm, Mina felt the tension leave his body. But when she examined his fingers, they were still bent unnaturally. ‘It didn’t work.’

Luka’s smile was fragile. ‘It did. They don’t hurt now.’

‘But they’re still broken.’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t feel it. Mina, I let you down. I should have left, come back to you. I just couldn’t let them smash the statues. I couldn’t walk away. It was stupid.’

Mina reached for his cheek, her eyes meeting his. The grief and pain she saw there tore into her heart, but beyond that she saw something real and raw, a universe of feelings.

‘Oh, Luka. It wasn’t stupid. It was brave. So brave.’

She lifted his hand and as gently as a whisper she stroked it, wishing she could straighten the misshapen fingers. Then she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. It seemed the smallest thing she could give him for the price he had paid. His unbroken hand stroked her hair, his touch like a flittering butterfly. When they parted, their eyes held each other forever. Until Sofia coughed. Luka looked up at her, and Mina saw grief flood his eyes again, banishing the joy that had been there fleetingly.

‘I’m sorry, Sofia. If I hadn’t tried to be brave, they wouldn’t have taken The Tale of Tarya. I promise you, if it takes the rest of my life, I will help you get it back.’

Sofia chuckled. ‘I’m sure you have better things to do with your time than that.’ She looked pointedly at Mina. ‘Besides, I’m the one who gave them the gold box. I’d only have myself to blame if the tales were gone forever.’

She turned her back on them and walked to the secret alcove. She ducked into it, then strode back, the ancient book clutched in her hands.

‘You don’t think I’d hand this over to some random thugs, do you? Thugs who clearly have no respect for people or property? I took it out of the box before I came in. They’re the type who’ll just see the gold, not the treasure that lies within.’

Mina ran to Sofia, reaching intuitively to stroke the tome’s cover.

‘Between the three of us we’ve saved the statues, the book, and each other,’ she declared.

Before the others could respond, the ground beneath them began to shake. The movement lasted for what seemed like minutes, but was probably only a few seconds, knocking Mina and Sofia to their knees. They covered their ears against a horrendous crashing and rumbling. Dust and small chips of rock fell around them. As the uproar died away, a weird, melodious ringing filled the cavern. None of the statues had toppled, nor the pillars. It was these that were singing, made to vibrate by the shuddering movement. They were in perfect tune with each other, an echoing chorus of exquisite beauty and sadness that gradually faded away to silence.

Mina rushed over to the cavern entrance. As Sofia had a short while before, she ran her hands over the rocks, lightly at first then with greater force. Not a single shaft of light broke through from outside anymore.

‘They’re not moving.’

Sofia and Luka joined her, also tentative initially, until they realised their greatest efforts achieved nothing. Luka spun away, frustrated he could only use one arm. It took Mina and Sofia longer to give up, but eventually they conceded they would not get out that way.

As one, without a word, they all hurried back to the empty alcove, then into the secret chamber. Their abandoned torches lay on the floor, no longer alight. Sofia hurried to relight them as Mina felt in the darkness for the secret stairwell. She quickly realised it had closed again. She had no chance of finding the eye sigil in the floor without light, so she waited with Luka for Sofia to return.

‘Did the water help your hand?’ she whispered. She felt the heat of his body as he drew closer to her.

‘It did.’

Mina laughed.

‘What is it?’

‘We always seem to find ourselves hiding in dark places together,’ she said.

Luka took a step closer. ‘It’s making me love the dark,’ he murmured, his voice low.

Mina moved in carefully. She could feel he was close, but wasn’t sure how close. They came into contact almost at once, and she pulled back in surprise, but only out of fear of hurting his broken hand. His arm slipped around her, and she melted against him. Somehow the darkness too seemed to enfold them, transporting them for the duration of their embrace to another place, far from the secrets and fear that drove their every move. Mina was never sure, afterward, whether they had somehow reached Tarya; all she knew was that for one perfect moment in time they had each other. All thoughts of their plans, of others, even of Dario, broke apart like smoke. Now was all that mattered. Later the looming darkness that surrounded them became tinged in her thoughts with shadows from the future that crept toward them. But that was later. For that infinite second everything was perfect.