The Tales of Tarya, Books 1-3

Chapter 4 - Washing at the Well-1

Washing at the Well‘Oh no you don’t,’ Mina said again, and reached out with both hands to pull the mask from Uberto’s face. Tarya pulled her, but without waiting to see what he had planned, she pushed with her will and drew Uberto straight to the River of Light, deep in the heart of the etheric realm. If he experienced the lost souls for himself, he would have to change his position and stop the players breaking threads. She let her hands drop, for here she had no real bodily presence, but felt Uberto pulling against her and willed him to remain in this part of Tarya with her. He struggled for a moment longer, but somehow Mina was able to hold him. Next she needed to get him into the river, but sensed a sliver of resistance from him.

With the mask and diamond costume on, Uberto swiftly transformed into Harlequin. He fought Mina’s mental bonds, leaping forward as though to flee, but the invisible force she had cast around him drew him back. He could only take a few steps before he stopped, unable to move. Trapped like a kite on a string, he faced Mina.

‘What do you want?’ His eyes flickered from side to side, still searching for an escape.

‘Tell me how I can heal my brother,’ Mina replied, placing her voice inside his head.

Harlequin laughed, a wicked, throaty chuckle. ‘You can’t’ he spat, dancing a little jig. ‘Once a fool, always a fool. You should know that from your uncle.’

Mina stared at him. She had been right. Her uncle was a victim of the players too.

‘What do you know about my uncle?’

Harlequin simply grinned, walking toward her with long strides, knees bent, head pushed forward like a pigeon. He stopped next to her, then flicked his hand. A great cracking sound filled the air. Mina startled, and for a second her mental control was broken. Harlequin leaped upward and sideways, toes pointed, like a frightened cat. He landed lightly, leaning in to whisper in Mina’s ear.

‘Don’t you want to know how I did it?’

His face metamorphosed into a fox again, though his body remained human.

‘You can do it too,’ he coaxed as the fox’s face melted away, leaving his own leering smile. ‘You have such gifts, I am sure this one must be yours also, though it is rare. Things it took me years to acquire, you do without even understanding. I can teach you.’

Tired of his playing, Mina let out a silent call. Harlequin tilted his head to one side, hearing it but not understanding. His pupils filled his eyes until they were night black. The smile slipped from his face. Only intuition made Mina realise he was about to flee before her summoning could take effect. She reached for his arm, but there was nothing to grab. In Tarya he had no substance.

‘Uh, uh, uh,’ he taunted, spinning away in a blur of reds and browns, greens and yellows, like autumn leaves caught in a tiny tornado. ‘No touching. You have to learn the rules.’

Mina remembered the last time she had confronted Harlequin in Tarya. He had conjured a bat that had almost suffocated her. It had seemed real enough. There had to be a way of giving things substance in this etheric place. She had actually felt the bat, not just experienced it in her head.

‘That’s not entirely true though, is it?’ she said, and threw a picture of a bat into her opponent’s head. He laughed gleefully.

‘Yes, that was well done. Sometimes not knowing the rules allows you to break them. That was another unexpected gift I found most interesting.’

Mina staggered backward, staring at Harlequin, who continued talking, unaware of the effect his words had just had on her. She took advantage of his self-absorption to call silently again.

‘For such a young thing you’re very strong,’ he mused, hopping from one foot to another. He noticed her expression and a smile split his face again.

‘You thought the bat was me, didn’t you, my pretty?’

He laughed, leaping to an impossible height, flapping his arms like wings. Landing lightly he spun around, blurring and shrinking until the fox was before her again.

‘In this guise I can only become one animal,’ he said from his pointed snout, then grew upward, returning to human form, his mottled fur shifting into Harlequin’s patches, his face becoming the white mask. ‘Though my fox was quite handy against that kidnapping fool in Clusone.’

Mina remembered how Rico had cried out, saying he’d been bitten in the darkened warehouse, what seemed like months ago, though it was really only a few weeks.

‘But I must go,’ Harlequin said abruptly, his lavish bow mocking. ‘Always leave the scene before the audience becomes bored. You have been a player, you should remember that.’

Mina felt Harlequin strain against her mental bonds and begin to fade in front of her eyes. Ultimately he was stronger than her—he began to slip from her hold, becoming increasingly transparent. She tried to strengthen the bonds but they simply slipped off him as he became a mere shadow.

Then the beings of the river responded to her silent summons. Tiny rainbows burst from the river’s shining band of light, spinning orbs of colour that were all the lost parts of those whose golden threads had been broken. They moved quickly, surrounding Harlequin until his slender shape was outlined with pinpricks of rainbow light, then began closing in, drawing closer and closer until he seemed to glow from inside.

‘What are you …’ he began, but his voice broke off with a choke as he began to feel what the lost souls were offering him. Every one of those sparks had been torn from its human body, and now they all relived that moment, over and over, immersing Harlequin in the tearing pain they had experienced.

‘This is what they felt, what you did to them,’ Mina said, standing tall. Nausea arose within as the man in front of her opened his mouth in a silent scream that tore at the inside of her head. She would call them away in a moment, but first he needed to understand.

The pain of the trapped souls became so loud Mina could hear it too, a whistle piercing the air. She began to feel the terrible sensation she had experienced once before, as though her spine were being torn from her body. She opened her mind to cry ‘enough’, but was silenced by the sight of Harlequin seeming to split in two. Within the encircling lights he writhed, trying to pull away from the tiny sparks. But as he twisted one way, he simultaneously twisted the other. His pupils shrank to tiny pinpricks, revealing cloudy green eyes. Mina could see two bodies, both identical, both transparent, contorting with pain and horror, pulling away from each other.

‘Enough,’ she cried.

The lights flew into the air, then dove into the depths of the River of Light, disappearing within its brilliance. Harlequin continued to thrash, his body torn impossibly in two. Yet it was not two halves. It was the same body, mirrored. Like some strange demon god, four arms flailed at the air and four legs kicked out in desperation. One body lunged forward, clutching at its stomach, while the other pulled backward, holding its head. Both faces distorted with pain. Where the two shadowy Harlequins crossed each other, they became almost substantial, but each was moving so much they split apart more often than they formed a whole.

Mina clutched her own head as Harlequin’s endless, silent scream continued inside her skull. She dropped to her knees, all thought of holding him here gone. He had felt what she wanted him to feel. Now it would be up to him whether he could live with it. Looking up, she saw one of the transparent bodies fall to its knees too, while the other suddenly broke free, leaping high into the air.

His scream faded into a hiccup and died, replaced by a high, rapid laugh that broke off abruptly as the leaping Harlequin disappeared completely. Uberto leaned on his arms, coughing. The mask fell from his face—almost seemed to leap of its own accord—and landed in the river.

Mina exhaled quickly, willing the air around her to move, and took them both out of Tarya. She experienced the momentary dislocation of the transition, the unbearable brightness of the real world. In an instant she was back in her own body. Uberto lay on the ground in front of her coughing in uncontrollable, retching spasms.

Mina rushed to kneel beside him, shocked at the changes to his appearance as she helped him sit up. His hair was brittle silver, all traces of black having vanished in the short time they were in Tarya, and wrinkles crawled in deep lines across his whisper-thin pale skin. His eyes were clouded over, almost white with a haze that made him appear blind.

‘I never knew,’ he whispered, clutching at Mina. Even his voice was different, faded too. ‘Believe me, Mina, I never knew.’

Uberto fell backward, pulling Mina down with him. She was surprised at the strength in his arms, for he seemed to have aged thirty years since their return from the River of Light. Then she realised the tugging was not physical. Mina found herself stumbling forward into Tarya again.

This time Uberto held her with invisible bonds, though Mina could tell there was little real strength there, only the force of his desperation. He was frail and small, barely able to hold himself up even in this realm where his body had no substance.

They stood some distance from the River of Light, in a place Mina had never been. From here the river appeared to flow downhill, a long, trailing ribbon of dancing light twisting downward in a tighter and tighter spiral until it dropped, in the end, into the centre of a large pool. She was surprised, for she had always sensed the river went on forever, though she had never wondered how that might be so. Forever did not seem impossible in Tarya though.

Somewhere along the spirals the river took on a green cast that grew brighter with each twist, so by the time it fell into the pool it was the bright green of summer leaves. The surface of the pool rippled constantly, as though someone nearby was throwing in stones. At the same time a mist hung over the pool, stable near the surface, but the higher curls drifting upward and dissipating.

‘What is this place?’ Mina asked, allowing herself to be pulled closer to the pool by Uberto. He glanced back at her. His movements were slow, like a man trying to walk underwater. Every turn of his head, every step, was a struggle.

‘The well.’ His voice, faint in Mina’s mind, registered surprise. ‘You’ve never been here?’

‘No.’

‘It lies between the River and the Plain of Seas.’

It was impossible in Tarya to measure distance. Suddenly they stood right next to the green pool, though they had not moved.

‘Those who are tired and bitter from life’s trials can come here to be restored, learning to feel love again when they have been hurt. If they open their hearts. Those who remain closed are burned as if in acid. I want you to throw me in.’

‘No,’ Mina gasped. There was deep sadness and resignation in Uberto’s eyes.

‘I have done terrible things, Mina. If I am burned, it is as it should be, and perhaps all I can expect. If I am washed clean, if I am given such a blessing, I can live out my few remaining months with a lesser stain on my soul. Find ways to atone.’

‘Remaining months?’ Mina asked. Uberto didn’t answer. He began the unnerving shift into his fox form again. Without thinking, Mina dived to catch him. There was a flash and he resumed his human form just as Mina’s lunge caught him in the knees. He stumbled backward. Mina watched with horror as he fell in a slow, arcing movement into the pool.

‘Sorry,’ he gasped just before he hit the water. There was a hissing sound and he disappeared completely beneath the rippling green surface.

Mina stared at the small wave caused by his fall, her mouth open. He had tricked her into pushing him in. She fell to her knees, reaching, not quite daring to touch the pool, which was starting to bubble. There was no sign of him. Could this really happen? In this realm neither of them had any bodily presence. Could his body really be burned up in this pool? What would happen to Uberto in the real world?