The Goblin Market (Into the Green) (26 page)

Fueled by her own spite, she never took her eyes off the castle when she asked, “How do we get across?”

Meredith felt a short tug on her breeches, and when she looked down one of the minstrels vied for her attention.

“What is it, little friend?”

The minstrel tilted its head and turned toward the water while holding out its hands, black painted palms up and flat as if he were holding up the sky.

“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

The minstrel mocked contemplation with his movements, and for a few moments he pretended to be thinking of a way to make her understand. He tapped his cheek and scratched his head, and then finally he nodded. After a few seconds he started to bounce his hands up and down in slow, wave-like patterns.

“The water?” she asked.

The excited minstrel nodded and then formed a flat surface with his palm up once again. He held it in the air and then put two fingers down like legs in the center of the palm and bounced slowly across like a raft over the water.

Him stepped in beside her, studying the gestures as he scratched his chin. “Do you know where we can find a boat or a raft?”

The group of minstrels parted to make way for three carrying a heavy, hand-crafted log raft up the center. Because of their size and the awkward construction of the raft, they stumbled several times and nearly fell into one another like comedic performers.

“It all seems too simple,” Meredith looked to her companion.

Him’s chest broadened as his lungs filled and then he exhaled. His face, which was still as long as the lake was wide, revealed nothing to her, at least not anything she could interpret. Without a word he walked down to the edge of the black water and stood with his arms crossed in deep contemplation.

The minstrels held the raft up to her, but Meredith shook her head and followed Him to the shore. Immediately the party of minstrels gathered in to follow behind her, but she turned on heel and held her hand up for them to stop. She left them standing there wondering what their next move was, where they were meant to go from there, and approached the waterside, where Him was lost in thought.

“We don’t have to cross the lake.” Her hand curled slowly around his upper-arm. “There has to be more than one way to the castle.”

He shook his head, his eyes slowly blinking as he looked back over his shoulder at her. “There is only one way to the castle, Merry, and this is it. It will be more dangerous than anything we have yet to see.”

“Dangerous?”

For the first time Meredith looked down at the smooth surface of the water that tasted of the shore in slow, greedy nibbles. It was level as a blanket of night, she thought, but then gasped at her own comparison when she noted that in the reflection of the water there were tiny flickering lights like stars.

Him moved in close and drew her near.

“’Tis the Nether Lake,” he explained. “Even before the Darknjan Wald was created, when there was only one realm undivided, the Nether Lake lay beyond the arms of a tormented and dark forest.” He spoke in a hushed voice, as though trying not to disturb the water.

“Scholars studied the Nether Lake for centuries, but none dared get too close. They said it was home to one of the forgotten gods, a nameless entity only known as the Ancient One. For an eternity sorcerers and the like tried to harness the power that lies in this lake, but to no avail. The Ancient One sleeps beyond the veil between worlds, waiting—for what nobody knows, but whenever someone crosses his domain he is wakened to the challenge.

“Some say that he takes those he deems worthy into the Nether and they become his pupils, but most believe he is a primal god, driven only by his own hunger for destruction.”

“There has to be another way, Him”

He shook his head, “There isn’t. Now do you see why so many fail to reach the castle?” He asked. “The story of this place is no secret in the Underground. Those who travel the Darknjan Wald come to this place and they turn back, for none dare to test the Ancient One. It is far easier to forsake one’s sanity than it is to face the Nether.”

She felt the sudden sting of tears in the corners of her eyes and blinked rapidly to try and stay them off. She had to swallow several times before she was able to get up the courage to ask, “Then what are we to do?” She was proud that her voice had not cracked with fear or worry, because no matter what they had to do, she did not want him to hold back from her because he thought she was afraid.

“We face it,” he said rather simply. “We face it and hope not to disturb the Ancient One.”

“And if we do?” Meredith felt her throat tighten against her breath.

“If we do disturb him, I will sacrifice myself so that you can go on to the castle and save your sister.”

“No!” It had come out before he even finished his sentence.

He braced her shoulders in both hands so she couldn’t turn away. “Merry, it is my destiny to protect you and see you to the castle!”

“But I cannot lose you,” she insisted. “Not after I have only just found you. I will not let you go so easily.”

He shook his head. A slow grin began at the corners of his mouth, and then he laughed just a little. “You’ll never lose me, Merry,” he ducked her under the chin so that she couldn’t look away from him. “You are the heart of my heart, and I’m going to be a part of you forever now, whether you want me to or not.”

He leaned inward and took her by surprise with a kiss. It was a firm and passionate kiss that caught her off guard so that she softened against him and melted into his arms.

He was her everything, and though she could scarcely begin to count the hours that had passed, her heart had known him all her life—before her life had even begun.

“Whatever comes of this is what was always meant to be, Meredith” he whispered. “Just remember that, always.”

Meredith drew her lower lip between her teeth, and then she nodded.

Him called to the minstrels, and they came forward carrying the raft between them. Once more they stumbled and bumbled like entertainers trying to get a laugh, but Meredith was not feeling very much like laughter, and Him had already braced himself for the task at hand.

“We will need a staff or a stick as well, something to use as an oar.”

One of the minstrels in the back scurried into the trees behind him and returned with a blackened branch that had died and fallen so long ago it hardly resembled a tree at all. Him tested its sturdiness and stood it up so that it leveled against his chest. “This will do,” he agreed, and then he turned to Meredith. “Are you ready to do this?”

Meredith wanted to shake him and ask him how one readies herself for such a task. How does one decide to risk not only her own life, but the life of one she loved more than herself? She shook her head no at first, but answered clearly, “I am ready.”

The set the raft afloat near the edge of the lake and Him took her about the waist to set her atop it. “Don’t let any one part of you linger near the water for too long. It’ll draw attention to your life and signal the Ancient One.”

Of all the things they had already faced together, each of them just as life-threatening as the next, this new task seemed more impossible than all the previous tasks combined. Before she had felt safe under Him’s protection, but as she watched him step hesitantly onto the wavering and unsteady raft, she only felt twisted. Twisted and defenseless.

They had not even departed yet and once more she was cursing herself for doing it all to save her sister. She knew that even though Christina loved her very much, her sister would never put herself through the kinds of horrors Meredith was facing. Christina—who didn’t appreciate or acknowledge anything. Christina—whom Meredith had given up her own youth for, whom she’d stopped time itself for so that Christina could be young and happy forever, while Meredith’s youth had slowly slipped away, and the dark emptiness inside of her became all consuming.

A flare of jealousy and bitterness toward her sister burned so strong Meredith almost resolved to turn back completely, but then it flashed even brighter inside of her and expanded to anger toward her mother. If her mother had never died she would not have been responsible for Christina, and she would have had her own life, her own youth, her own happinesses. And then she blamed her father for abandoning his own children.

It wasn’t fair. None of it was fair.

Him dug the rod into the water, pushed hard as though it were thick as mud, and untucked their tiny vessel from the shoreline. The raft trembled against the surface, under their weight, and for a long time she held her breath.

“We’re going to make it across the lake,” she told herself in a thick whisper that stuck like glue against the back of her tongue.

“Merry,” he interrupted her train of thought. “If you could have one wish in all the world, what would it be?”

She was surprised at his thoughtful query and glanced upward. “I think I would like very much to wake somewhere beside you and find that we were always together and this was nothing more than a horrible dream.”

“That would be nice,” he agreed.

“What would you wish?”

“The same.”

The shore shrank with every stroke of the limb through the ebony water. Some of the minstrels had been waving them off since she had first sat down on the raft, and when she looked she saw that those same minstrels were still waving their hands in gleeful farewell.

“Just relax,” he instructed. “Think happy thoughts, and try to remember to keep yourself away from the water.”

Now that she actually see the castle, the glamour of it faded like a distant dream in the revelation of hidden daylight. The silver essence surrounding it was no more than a thick smudge of grey against the moss-covered and moldy stone. The east tower rose into the clouds, the stone at that height glistening black with dampness.

There was an arched window just near the top of the tower, indicating that there was a room there, perhaps a room from which Kothar watched over the land, or even more likely, a place where he kept prisoners. It was so high that it reminded her of Rapunzel’s tower, and she watched for a moment to see if there was a glistening hint of golden hair to come tumbling out that window.

There was no glistening stream of gold, only darkened glass and lowering her head in preemptive defeat, Meredith let a long sigh deflate her.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

As they glided atop the water, it sloshed close to her and Meredith leaned outward to look down into the thick eternity. It was like looking into the night sky, limitless as the pinpoints of light flickered with every row. Her own reflection in the surface was no more than a shadow distorted by the wrinkles in the water, which disturbed her until she thought she would hyperventilate with fear.

Happy thoughts
.

She reached backward in her mind for the last shred of happiness, but as she glanced over her shoulder toward the shrinking shore, the minstrels in her view only brought her sadness. They became strange smudges against an already murky canvas, and their white faces stood out like the stars in the water against the dismal backdrop of the desolate Wald.

They were far enough from the shore she could no longer hear the sound of their farewell music. And then a grey streak moved in and out of the black bodies, causing Meredith to strain her eyes.

“Is that Gorigast?”

Him narrowed his gaze. “It does look like him,” he said, “but he’s too late if he’s meant to follow us now.”

Meredith looked away, back out over the vast lake and tried to figure in her mind how long it would take them to reach the other side. Ten, perhaps fifteen minutes. Even ten minutes would seem like an eternity as she watched the water and waited for doom to erupt from the pitch.

They steadily moved toward the center of the lake and water licked the sides of their raft. Aside from the clear sound of wood rushing through water, Meredith heard only ploinks and splashes and the hurried rhythm of her own heart.

Him appeared soldierly in his resolve to get them across the lake quickly. She watched the muscles in his arms and chest contract and expand, marveling at his elegance. How she could fashion her mind on such a thing during so crucial a time she did not know, but it brought the flicker of a smile to her mouth. This must be how Christina felt when she watched Wilhelm plough the Grisham’s field. Pride mingled with desire, desire evoked fear, and fear only seemed to increase her want for him.

Meredith looked out around Him, at the whisperish sound of a distant splash. Only the final droplets of water clung to the air as if suspended by, but then they too fell just in time for what appeared to be two small serpents flailing just above the surface.

“What on earth—” she remarked, trying not to lean too far for fear of rocking the raft and knocking Him off balance.

Him steadied and peered over his shoulder in the direction Meredith had pointed. “What is it?”

“Something in the water, just near the shore and drawing closer,” she said. “I think one of the minstrels fell into the lake.”

“The last thing we need is a disturbance in the water.”

Meredith shuddered, as to hear him say that only made the nonexistent threat of some otherworldly god seem all the more horrific. They had already rowed so far, were halfway across, and that was when she saw what looked like flailing, tentacle arms in the water. Once more, her heart sped up, and she could hardly breathe.

She looked toward the shore again, the same splash of arms only it wasn’t flailing so much as it was swimming toward them. “I think it is Gorigast."

“More and more I fear I understand his mission, and that mission is to destroy us before we reach the doors of the castle.” Him's dark lips curled into a scowl. “I rue the day we ever met that elf.”

Meredith closed her eyes in a flash of guilt, as she had trusted the elf far too eagerly. She had been thinking with her logic and reason instead of with her heart; thinking only of reaching the castle, not about the hardships such simple trust could bring upon them.