9. The Shadowing
1489 Words
9
The Shadowing
Emilia drifted into sleep. She could feel her breath slowing as her body relaxed. Her heart beat gently in her chest. But before she could be sure she had fallen asleep, the pounding changed. It was a different rhythm. And there were other sounds, too, whispers filling the tent.
“It’s ok. It’s the centaurs.”
“They’re all following Proteus. It looks like a ceremony.”
“Claire.” The urgency in Jacob’s voice yanked Emilia out of sleep.
Connor and Jacob stood in the tent opening, silhouetted against the night.
“What’s wrong?” Emilia sat up, trying to get her mind to work.
“Oh, you know,” Connor whispered, “Claire’s running into the night, following a herd of centaurs beating drums. The usual.”
“I’ll go get her.” Jacob moved silently out of the tent. Connor didn’t even look back at Emilia before following.
“Always with that girl,” Emilia mumbled to herself before following the boys. She reached instinctively for the sapphire pendant at her neck. She would not go into the dark without her talisman.
A long line of centaurs wound a path through the trees across the clearing, and behind them trotted Claire. Emilia ran to catch up to Jacob and Connor.
The night wind bit her bare arms, and the grass was cold and damp between her toes.
“What’s happening?” Jacob whispered to her as she reached his side.
“Not a clue,” she answered.
The three of them continued to run, chasing Claire’s blond hair, which gleamed in the night.
Jacob caught up to Claire first and grabbed her by the arm.
“Ouch,” Claire said, her voice piercing the night.
The young pale centaur Loblolly was at the end of the line, and he turned to face them. He did not speak to reprimand. “Talahm téige.”
The ground beneath Emilia’s feet became soft and warm. Loblolly turned away and continued to walk through the woods.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Jacob hissed at Claire.
“Finding out what they’re doing.” Claire moved to follow Loblolly, but Jacob didn’t let go of her arm.
“You can’t go running off in the middle of the night,” Jacob said.
“You never would have let me go if I'd asked. And now that they know we’re following and aren’t mad, why don’t we keep following them before they get too far ahead?” Claire yanked her arm out of Jacob’s grasp and ran down the path.
“Can’t let her go alone,” Connor murmured before chasing after Claire.
Jacob looked at Emilia. It took her a moment to realize he was asking her what they should do. There was no Aunt Iz here to take care of them. She and Jacob had to look after Claire and Connor now.
“Let’s go.”
They continued through the forest as the stars moved overhead. The ground beneath their feet stayed warm and soft as though the centaurs had rolled out a carpet for their wizard guests.
As Emilia began to wonder if they would walk all night, the drums in front of them became louder and faster, pounding like a heartbeat racing with fear.
Jacob’s hand found Emilia’s, and her heart began to race with the drums. She looked down at Jacob’s free hand. It shone gold in the night as it swung in and out of view with every step. It looked like pure magic radiated from him.
Jacob tightened his grip on her hand as a wail pierced the night, slicing through the sound of the drums. Another voice joined the first. Then another. But Loblolly kept walking calmly onward.
Ahead, she could see the centaurs’ towering shadows leaving their line and grouping around something in a clearing that was just out of sight. And still, the sound of the wailing grew louder as more centaurs added their cries.
Claire backed up, pulling Connor with her. She slipped her hand into Emilia’s free one, and together, the four of them stepped into the open.
In front of them a pond sparkled in the night. The surface of the water looked like liquid diamonds that reflected a light Emilia couldn’t see. Dozens of centaurs moved to surround the pond, and as each of them reached the water’s edge, they raised their voices to wail. Finally, Emilia understood―they were mourning. Proteus stood across the water, tears streaming down his face as his cry rose above the others.
Emilia didn’t notice the drums had stopped until she heard Proteus’s low voice begin to sing. She couldn’t understand his words, but slowly all of the other centaurs joined in his song. The light in the pond began to change as the water stirred, as though pushed and pulled by the voices of the singers.
Emilia could feel the magic of the song tingling her skin. A painfully sad magic. A final goodbye.
She tightened her grip on Claire’s and Jacob’s hands. They were there. They were with her. She wasn’t alone.
A centaur with bright white hair stepped forward next to Proteus. Even across the water, Emilia could tell she was far older than any other centaur she had ever met. The centaur raised her arms, and the singing grew louder and the movement in the pond changed. The surface seemed to vibrate as the sound penetrated it, and from its center, a blackness emerged.
“Talahm siúl i scáth éineacht i lán.” The song became a chant, and the blackness grew, swallowing the sparkling pond and casting them all into darkness.
“Talahm siúl i scáth éineacht i lán,” the centaurs chanted faster and louder.
In the faint starlight, Emilia watched the blackness of the water overflowing the bank across from her, reaching out toward Proteus and the dozen centaurs nearest him.
She wanted to scream a warning, but the centaurs around her watched the blackness growing without fear. The darkness crept up the bodies of the thirteen centaurs until they were engulfed by blackness that blocked out even the light that had shone from the elderly centaur’s hair. The thirteen became inky shadows, figures of nothing, in the night.
Air whipped around them. “Slán a fhágáil ag duine,” the whisper carried through the wind.
As if in answer, the chanting stopped. The thirteen centaurs made shadow turned from the pond and ran into the night. As they left the clearing, the blackness followed them, disappearing between the trees. The pond grew still as glass, reflecting the stars above, and the remaining centaurs began to leave.
“Thank you for joining us.” Emilia jumped as Loblolly spoke, breaking the silence.
“What was that?” Claire asked.
“The shadowing,” Loblolly said. “Our souls become shadows when we die. Tonight, some of us became shadows to run alongside the ones we love as they journey to the other side. To make sure those who were killed at Graylock make it safely to the land where shadows walk forever.”
“But Proteus will come back?” Claire asked.
“They will run only until the dawn. That is as long as the spell will last.”
They followed the long line of centaurs back into the woods. They walked more quickly without the regimented timing of the beating drums. Emilia jogged to keep up, Jacob keeping step by her side, and Connor running ahead. Claire panted along behind them. Emilia had forgotten for a moment how much smaller Claire was than the rest of them. Emilia slowed to walk with her, but Loblolly scooped Claire up and set her on his back.
“Thanks,” Claire gasped.
“It is an honor to carry children,” Loblolly said. “With them, we carry the best hope for the future.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call Claire anyone’s best hope.” Connor looped back around to Loblolly’s side.
“Why did you wait?” Jacob asked, steadying Claire as she took a wild swipe at the top of Connor’s head and nearly slipped off of Loblolly’s back.
“Wait for what?” Loblolly asked.
“The ceremony. Graylock happened months ago. Why do the ceremony now?” Jacob said.
“We had to wait for you,” Loblolly said. “The spirits of the lost ones cannot rest until their deaths are avenged. You did that. But since someone not of our Tribe avenged their deaths, their souls could not run free until our debt to you had been repaid. Bringing you here, sheltering you―this is how we have repaid our debt. Now that you are here under our protection, their souls are free.”
A tug of pain pulled at the center of Emilia’s chest. She glanced to Jacob. Unfamiliar lines creased his face. He looked old, filled with grief and care. She could feel something was wrong, something that hadn’t troubled him a few moments ago. She tried to take his hand, but he swung it forward and out of her reach.
More quickly than Emilia would have expected, they were back in the clearing with the tents. Claire was slumped over asleep on Loblolly’s back, and Jacob had to help him slide her carefully down. Jacob carried Claire to her bed. Emilia pulled back the blankets and helped him tuck Claire in.
“I swear that girl can sleep through anything,” Connor muttered as he walked through the partition into the boys’ half of the tent.
“Jacob.” Emilia tried again to take his hand. Something was wrong. He needed her.
“Goodnight, Emilia.” He disappeared behind Connor without looking back.
- Writer
