From Light to Dark (22 page)

“We have to go forward,” Caer whispered. “It’s shut us in.” Her voice echoed all around them. She shivered, and Eref pulled her closer.

Together, the three of them walked toward the rocking boat. A scent of something like flowers or candy wafted their way.

As they neared the boat, they found three cages next to a crystal-clear pool that sparkled like the dew on the flowers of Dark World. It was like no other water Eref had ever seen, and, by the looks on their faces, it surprised Vul and Caer as well.

The water didn’t move like normal, thin liquid. It appeared thicker and more solid, moving as one huge mass of clear jelly.

And it smelled incredible. As he approached, something coming from the pool gave off the most enticing aroma he’d ever come across in his life. It almost begged him to wade in….

“Woah,” Vul said, pointing at the slowly swaying boat. “Look.”

The bottom of the wooden boat was covered in something that seemed waxy and brown, almost like candy itself. But that wasn’t what Vul had noticed. She pointed at what was
happening
to the waxy substance.

The water rose and fell, lapping the sides of the boat, and little bits of steam rose from the wax. The wax gradually melted off into the pool, giving off a tiny hissing sound.

This wasn’t water.

This was a pool of acid.

“What are we supposed to do?” Eref stared at the beautiful acidic pool with the strange wooden boat and the cages nearby.

Each cage contained a different animal. One was a sickly, snarling fire dog, its sharp teeth bared. Another was a Dark World beast with long arms and fingers that gripped the bars of the cage; it looked quizzically out at them and flicked its thin tail. The last cage contained what Eref assumed had to be an overweight tinghept.

The keys to each cage lay on the ground just in front of their doors.

“Look at this,” Caer said, bending down.

“Be careful,” Vul said. “Don’t touch the water.”

Gingerly, Caer reached out and pulled a small metal sheet from the edge of the pool. She turned to Eref. “It has instructions.”

An eerie feeling crept through his stomach. “What does it say?”

Caer squinted. The writing must have been tiny, because it took her a moment to read. She cleared her throat and began.

“Automated message 7304293401-512457821-1. Puzzle 2 for Exile’s life-transfer duties, month 11868. Items: One fire dog—starving; one eokmyn—starving; one tinghept—fed. Items may not be transported inside cages. All items must be alive at the other side and returned to cages there once the task is over. Only one item may be in the boat during each crossing. Total time to cross acid river one way: 30 seconds. Total time boat can last in acid from puzzle start:…”

Caer stopped.

Eref’s mind raced. “What does it say?”

She shook her head. “I can’t read it out loud.”

“Why not?” Vul took a step forward and leaned in to read the writing.

“No, Vul,” Caer said. “Don’t say it.” She handed the metal sheet to Eref, who adjusted his glasses again.

Vul peeked from around his shoulder.

At first, he found the miniscule writing was impossible to make out. But Eref continued to stare, and letters eventually popped out one by one. Within seconds, the final sentence was clear:

Total time boat can last in acid from puzzle start: SAY “BEGIN” FOR TIME
.

“We’re dead,” Vul said.

“No,” Eref said. “We have to get through this.”

“What if we do? There’s probably a harder puzzle after this!” Vul’s voice bounced off the walls of the room and sounded across the pool of acid.

“Shhh, Vul,” Caer whispered. “There’s only supposed to be one person in here.”

Eref looked at the pool next to them. The boat rocked back and forth, its protective coating hissing. He found it almost hard to believe that this tempting, crystal-clear water could melt the skin right off their bones.

“All right,” he finally said. “Fire dogs are from my world. They’ll eat basically anything except the color blue, which I guess means the tinghept is safe. Normally fire dogs wait for the prey to die on its own unless they are attacked, but if this one is starving, it’s definitely going to want to eat.”

Vul raised her eyebrows. “Will it try to eat us?”

Eref considered the fire dog. Its ribs were showing, and its legs wobbled. “I don’t think this one has the strength anymore.”

This puzzle seemed unnecessarily cruel.

“So the fire dog will eat the oekmyn, and the oekmyn will eat the tinghept,” Caer said.

“Is that what they do? I’ve never heard of a eokmyn before,” Eref said.

Caer nodded. “A tinghept’s main predator is the eokmyn.”

For a moment, they all fell silent, and Eref thought of Atc. He knew Caer was probably doing the same thing.

Vul bent down to peer into the cages. “But how do we get them across without their cages if they’ll just eat each other?”

Caer looked forlorn. The tinghept nuzzled its cage sweetly, brushing its human-like head against the bars and purring.

Nearby, the eokmyn fiddled with the lock on its own door and tried to get free. The fire dog looked mad with hunger.

“Wait,” Vul said. “I think I have it.”

“You do?” Caer pulled her gaze from the tinghept and focused on Vul.

“Yeah,” Vul said. “It will take four trips there, and three trips back.”

Eref looked at the acidic pool nearby. “That’s how long?”

“That’s 210 seconds,” Caer said.

“This has to be it,” Vul said. “I’m certain. It’s the only way it will work.”

Caer seemed worried. “What if you’re wrong? What if we ask for the time, and the boat won’t last that long?”

Vul stared at the cages. “I’m not wrong,” she said. “I can’t be.”

“Are you sure?” Caer glanced back at the metal sheet of instructions and then over at the lake of crystal death.

Vul nodded and then said in a loud voice, “BEGIN.”

Caer gasped. From somewhere above in the darkness, a deep voice boomed back, “Two-hundred and twenty seconds. Go.”

Vul raced to the eokmyn and released it. “Get in the boat,” she said. “Anyone. Take this eokmyn across.”

Eref hurried to do what she said, and Vul continued letting the other animals out of their cages. Once they were all free, Eref jumped in, and the boat set off automatically.

A voice boomed again from above, “Two hundred and fifteen seconds.”

The boat moved through the acid with great speed, but it swayed dangerously a few times. Eref found himself holding the eokmyn above his head and shifting to different sides to avoid the splash. The eokmyn seemed to comprehend the danger, and it gripped Eref’s head with its large, shaking hands, sometimes accidentally covering Eref’s eyes.

He reached the other side, tossed the eokmyn out and set off back toward Caer and Vul.

The voice in the ceiling called out, “One hundred and eighty-five seconds.”

Listening to a constant countdown was useful, but nerve-wracking. Every breath that Eref took felt as if it had lasted an hour. Would they really complete the task in time? Below him, the acid already hissed against the boat’s foundation.

“One hundred and fifty-five seconds.”

Eref jumped out of the boat, and this time, Vul leapt in with the tinghept. She took off immediately.

Now Caer and Eref were left alone with the whimpering fire dog for another agonizing minute.

“I hope she knows what she’s doing,” Caer said, her hands wringing her purple dress.

“I think she does,” Eref said. “This plan is starting to make sense to me. If I’m right, she’ll come back with the eokmyn this time.”

“One hundred and twenty-five seconds.”

He squinted to see across the dark lake. Vul was on her way back, and Eref had been correct. She carried the nervous eokmyn, who had climbed to the top of her shoulders for safety.

Closer and closer the boat came. Vul waved at them from under the eokmyn’s terrified gestures.

“We need to get the next step ready,” Caer said. “The fire dog’s going this time, right?”

“Yes,” Eref said. “Help me pick him up. I’ll go this trip.”

“No,” Caer said. “Let me take him.”

Eref looked at the angry beast at their feet. It couldn’t overpower Caer, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t bite her on the way.

“Please,” Caer said. “I feel sorry for it. I’ll be careful.”

“Ninety-five seconds.”

Vul jumped onto the landing, shouting, “Go! Go! Come back alone, and we’ll finish together! Hurry!”

Caer scooped the starving fire dog up in her arms and dashed to the boat.

Eref and Vul watched her from the bank, the eokmyn still clutching Vul’s shoulders and trembling.

To Eref’s surprise, the fire dog wasn’t the least bit hostile toward Caer. She stroked its head and scratched its ears, and it gazed up at her with loving trust.

He’d never seen a fire dog tamed before. This was amazing.

The biggest problem was keeping the dog from leaning over the side of the boat and lapping the acid. Caer tugged its neck and pulled it back several times, the boat rocking with each minor struggle.

“Come on, come on,” Vul muttered, willing the boat to go faster.

Finally, Caer reached the other side. She coaxed the fire dog away from the acid and onto the ground. Then she patted the tinghept’s head, and jumped back in to return.

“Sixty seconds.”

They’d lost time. Caer appeared horrified at the sound of the booming voice. There wasn’t a second to spare.

“We can do this,” Vul said. “When she gets here, just jump right in and bring the cages.”

Eref nodded. He grabbed the cages in his arms and waited.

“Thirty seconds.”

Caer arrived just after the voice spoke, and she quaked with fear. “I was slow! Will we make it?”

They were already piled in together, the cages on top of their laps, the eokmyn on top of Vul’s head, speeding toward the other side.

“We’ll make it,” Eref said.

It would be close, though. Every second that passed, the hissing of the acid grew louder, and the boat sank a little deeper. He felt the base of the boat growing thin.

“Fifteen seconds.”

They’d made it about halfway across. A panic surged in his chest that filled him with an irrational need to leap out of the boat and swim to the other side. But he knew that would mean death, so he resisted.

He just had to wait. It was out of their control now.

“Ten seconds.”

“I don’t think we’re close enough,” Caer moaned.

“Get your clammy eokmyn hands off my eyes! I can’t see,” Vul said.

“Five seconds.”

They weren’t close enough. They had no other choice; when the time ran out, they would have to jump.

“Three.”

“Get ready, everyone,” Eref said, and they all clearly knew what they had to do. Caer and Vul stood up and faced the bank.

“Two.”

“Be careful,” Caer said.

The acid hissed loudly below them.

“One.”

“Jump!”

As the boat dissolved beneath their feet, Eref, Caer, and Vul leapt across the pool of acid with the cages in their arms. The eokmyn jumped on its own and landed several feet from the fire dog, who growled and salivated.

“Are we alive?” Vul lay in a tiny heap on top of Caer, with Eref just to the side. Their feet were inches from the lapping lake of acid.

“Quick,” Caer said. “The cages.”

They had no time to catch their breath. The fire dog already crouched, ready to devour the eokmyn. The eokmyn had noticed the tinghept as well and crept toward it, hands outstretched.

Caer grabbed the tinghept, Vul stopped the eokmyn, and Eref picked up the fire dog. They each put an animal in its cage and locked the doors.

Instantly, the cages and the animals vanished, and the voice above boomed, “Task complete.”

A door creaked open before them.

They had made it.

But the trials hadn’t ended yet. With a sinking heart, Eref spied yet another puzzle through the open door.

They had nowhere to go from here. Behind them lay the pool of acid with no way around or across, now that the boat had disintegrated. Ahead of them on the wall of the next room hung five large vines. The floor opened up at this wall, and the vines led downward into a huge, dark tunnel.

Each vine was different. The first one was medium-width and bright green, with several round leaves sprouting from it.

The second was as thick as Eref’s torso and bright red. No leaves had grown there.

Next to that was another green one, but it looked sickly. Leaves losing their color dropped off into the tunnel.

Then there was another bright red vine with red and blue leaves. It spiraled all the way downward.

The last vine was the thinnest of the five, its color an electric blue that stood out from all the rest.

“What now?” Vul leaned over to catch her breath. “I can’t handle another one of those puzzles.”

“We almost didn’t make it this far,” Eref said.

Caer stayed silent. She seemed to focus intensely on the vines.

Eref turned to her. “Do you see anything?”

“They’re like huge Bind Vines,” Vul said.

Caer shook her head. “They’re Throat Vines.”

“No,” Vul said, turning back to the wall. “Come on. That’s not fair.”

Eref didn’t like the sound of this. “What are Throat Vines?”

“Vines that look like regular plants, but they’re lethal,” Vul said. “They wrap around you and force themselves down your throat. Then you choke to death, and the vines plant new seeds to grow from your body. Is that right, Caer?”

Caer nodded, eyes still fixed on the wall.

Eref rubbed his neck. “There has to be a trick,” he said. “We’re supposed to get through to the Governors. Can we jump down?”

“Not without touching them,” Vul said. “The tunnel’s too narrow. If we touch one, we’re dead.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” Eref disliked these dangerous plants and creatures of Dark World. At least back home he knew what to avoid. If Caer hadn’t been here, he might have grabbed the first vine he had seen and tried to climb down.

“Maybe they’ve discovered us,” Vul said. “Maybe we’re trapped in here and we have to choose between the vines and the acid.”