20. Literal Translation
1938 Words
20
Literal Translation
Emilia took Jacob’s hand and led him back through the curtain. Resisting the urge to run down the stairs, she walked calmly, her eyes fixed on the front door. She kept waiting for the doors to slam again, or for darkness to stop them. But before she could reach the front door, it opened without a sound, and the pale blue of twilight poured into the house.
Emilia pulled Jacob through the door and quickened her pace. They walked silently across the lush, green lawn. At the gate, the tree and the crescent moon with three stars glowed gold for a moment before it swung open, and Emilia ran the last few steps back out onto the sidewalk. Without a word, she turned and started walking back down Bellevue Avenue.
Emilia didn’t look back at Jacob. She just kept walking, dragging him along. Her neck tingled as though the Hag were still watching her, wanting to see what would come next. They walked in silence past the rows of mansions, their windows lit up in the dark night. They all looked welcoming. A place with a bed and a shower. A place to hide in safety.
“What do we do now?” Jacob finally asked when they were nearly back to town. “We could try to contact Claire. See if she has anymore leads on who else might know what happened to your mother.”
“Don’t bother,” Emilia muttered and started walking faster.
“I know this is frustrating, Emi, but you can’t give up.” Jacob took Emilia’s shoulder. “Just because the Hag didn’t want to tell us anything helpful, about anything at all, doesn’t mean we should give up. We’ll find another way.”
“I’m not giving up.” Emilia turned to Jacob. “But you’re going back to the preserve.”
“What?”
“We’ll buy you a bus ticket,” Emilia said, trying to push through what she had to say.
“No!” Jacob shouted before looking around and pulling Emilia to the edge of the sidewalk. The people passing them were staring now. They probably wondered if Emilia was in danger. They were right. “If I’m going back to the preserve, so are you.”
“But―”
“No buts. Where you go, I go.” Jacob held Emilia’s gaze.
“You can’t come with me. Not where I’m going.” She tipped her chin up, trying to look confident.
“What do you mean?”
“The Hag told me exactly what she told my mother.”
“You mean that poem? It was just a bunch of nonsense.” Jacob shook his head. “The Hag was just screwing with us. Probably the most fun she’s had since cars were invented.”
“It’s an old legend. At least, I thought it was a legend, but if that’s what the Hag told my mother, it must be real.” Emilia yanked her hands through her hair. She turned and continued walking. “And I need to go, because if that’s where she is,” her voice caught in her throat, “then I have to rescue her.”
“You think the poem is about something real?” Jacob asked, his voice rising above a whisper for a moment.
“The Hag doesn’t lie.” Emilia took Jacob’s hands. She could feel his fear for her radiating through her chest. “And I can’t let you come with me. Jacob, I can’t put you in that kind of danger.”
“We just went to a f*******n Hag,” Jacob said.
Emilia dropped his hands and covered her face. He didn’t understand.
“There are Dragons out there hunting us every day. I won’t let you go alone.” Jacob lifted Emilia’s hands from her face. “We’re in this together, remember?”
“That was before I knew where I was going,” Emilia whispered.
“What does the poem mean?” Jacob asked, wrinkles forming in the middle of his forehead.
“I thought it was a fairytale,” Emilia said. “A legend about a faraway place where everything is peaceful and perfect.”
“What place?”
“The Siren’s Realm. A place travelers go where they’re safe forever.” Emilia began to tremble.
“If it’s a safe place, then why would your mother need to be rescued?” Jacob asked.
“The Siren doesn’t exist in this world. She exists on a plane slightly out of sync with ours. At least, that’s what I’ve always been told. But I thought it was a story. I never really considered the possibility that the Siren might be real. The legend says the Siren’s world is stitched to ours with thread spun of time and magic. Everywhere one of those stitches exists, there’s a way to slip from our world into hers, through the hole the thread makes.
“Lots of wizards and witches have tried to cross into the Siren’s Realm, but none of them come back. Iz always said it was because the Siren wasn’t real, and they died trying to get to her. But if some of them made it…”
“So, how do we start looking?” Jacob asked without hesitation.
Emilia sighed. She wanted to protect him, to make sure at least he was safe. But he would be able to find her, and what if she couldn’t do it alone? “My mother was last seen in Maine, so I say we start there.”
Emilia found them a room in a nice hotel with windows overlooking the water. She used a memory charm on the concierge who insisted he needed a credit card number for security purposes. She ordered room service, ate quickly, and ran down to use the computers in the lobby. She didn’t speak to Jacob, and he hadn’t said a word either. But he followed her, letting her use magic on the concierge without protest, eating the food that came, and following her downstairs without question.
Emilia stared at the computer screen, wondering where to start. Before she could begin typing, Jacob put his hand over the keyboard.
“Just a minute,” he said. Emilia looked at him, wondering what argument he had been forming in his silence. “Is it safe to search this on the internet?”
“What?” Emilia asked.
Jacob looked behind him, making sure they couldn’t be overheard. “I started thinking about it in the coffee shop where you borrowed that guy’s computer. The MAGI computer system, Spellnet, it tracked everything, right?”
Emilia nodded.
“Including the ability to track search terms?” Jacob asked.
“I’m sure it could have, but I never thought to ask.” Emilia reached for the keyboard.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t search something like this. What if the Dragons have access to the system? They could find us here.” Jacob lifted Emilia’s hands away from the keys.
“Claire crashed the system. There is no more Spellnet. No MAGI. And I don’t know how else to figure out what the poem means. If you have a better idea, I would love to hear it,” Emilia said.
“When MAGI was broken into―” Jacob began.
Emilia shivered. MAGI had always been tough, unbreakable, until it was gone.
“―Iz thought there could have been someone on the inside. Maybe whoever the spy was is still out there with access to some of the Spellnet things. They could―”
“Could what?” Emilia asked. “There is no way to do this safely.”
Jacob held Emilia’s wrists for another moment before letting go.
“Thank you,” she said, trying to decide what to search first.
Jacob pulled his chair to the computer next to her and began typing. Emilia looked over at him, one eyebrow raised.
“If we’re going to do this, we should at least make it quick,” Jacob said as he began typing.
After two hours, Emilia’s eyes began to blur. Other hotel guests kept peeking in, hoping to use one of the computers, glaring when they realized she and Jacob were still using the only two.
They tried searching disappearances in Maine, where Rosalie had last been seen. They looked for places rumored to have a connection to the Siren, but there was nothing at all about her. They looked for any mystical rumors, but other than a few scattered ghost stories, there was nothing.
Emilia dug the heels of her hands into her eyes. They were going about this all wrong. There had to be a way to find the information.
“Emi,” Jacob whispered, “recite it to me one more time.”
“When the first flash of dawn breaks through the night
at the top of the land where the rock meets the sea,
the first to see and the first to take flight
will find the land of her pure delight.
The chance of the fall is the price must be paid.
Risk darkness or light to find what awaits.”
“I think I might have it.” A smile spread across Jacob’s face.
Emilia stood and leaned over his shoulder, expecting to see a page about the Siren, but instead he was on a national park site.
“Cadillac Mountain is the first place in America to see the sunlight each morning. People climb to the top to be the first to watch the sun rise from the peak of a giant rock, next to the ocean,” Jacob said.
“So the poem is literal?” Emilia asked, scanning down the information on the page.
“Yep,” Jacob said, “and the kicker? It’s in Maine.”
Emilia kept reading the page. It sounded right. The rock near the water, the first flash of dawn. It all fit. “That means the jumping is literal, too.”
Jacob nodded. “Sounds like it.”
“We’re going to go to Maine, climb a mountain, and then jump off of it?” Emilia asked, trying to keep her voice from shaking.
“And hope we land in a magical place of joy and light, find your mom, and save the day. I think that’s the plan,” Jacob said calmly. He reached up and slid his hand into Emilia’s. She held on as tightly as she could. “We’ll be fine.”
“Jacob,” Emilia said, sitting back down and pulling her chair close to his, “you don’t have to do this. You don’t have to jump off a cliff for me.”
Jacob let go of Emilia’s hand and started typing again, pulling up bus schedules.
“Jacob,” Emilia whispered.
“Do you think jumping off a cliff with you would be worse than staying on solid ground and watching you do it alone?” Jacob asked, not looking at Emilia.
The room went blurry again as tears formed in Emilia’s eyes. “We should take a train.” She rolled her chair back to her computer. “You’ve never been on a train, right?”
“Never,” Jacob said.
“We should fix that,” Emilia said, looking at Jacob and trying to make herself smile.
When Emilia had folded up the printed train schedule and tucked it into her pocket, Jacob took her hand and led her through the hotel atrium to the shining glass elevator.
“It’s not too late,” Emilia said, pressing the button for the fifth floor. “I say we drop off our backpacks and go find some food.”
“Are restaurants open this late?” Jacob asked as the elevator began its smooth ascent, gliding past the hotel rooms and the balconies overlooking the fountain and elegant tables that decorated the open atrium.
Emilia smiled. There were so many things she took for granted that Jacob had never done. “Have you ever had clam chowder?” Jacob opened his mouth to speak, but Emilia placed a finger over his lips. “It doesn’t count if it’s from a can.”
Emilia tumbled into Jacob and knocked him hard into the back wall as the elevator gave a sudden and violent jerk. Emilia scrambled to her feet, rubbing the center of her forehead where it had smacked into the glass wall.
The lights in the elevator flickered feebly, and shouts carried through the glass from the lobby four-and-a-half stories below. Emilia looked down out of the glass window. People in hotel uniforms ran around the lobby.
“It’s okay. They know we’re stuck,” Emilia said.
Jacob was already at the elevator door, pushing the emergency button. “Should we try and pry the doors open?”
The elevator gave another grinding lurch and dropped a foot. Jacob grabbed Emilia, pulling her to his chest.
“Yes,” Emilia said, her heart beginning to race. “I think opening the doors would be a yes.”
- Writer
