Fossil Lake: An Anthology of the Aberrant (9 page)

“I’ve met him.”

“But forget him. What’s your name, sweet man? I’m Krynee the Ocular. Princess of the Dank. Sitter on Stones. Eye in the Shadows.”

“Theo. You’re an oracle?”

“Wise for a changeling. Handsome too.”

“You’re the first person that’s ever called me wise.”

“Wisdom comes with age. Youth is foolish, the old are wise.”

“So they say.”

“Would you like to know your future, Theo? I can tell you … for the answer to a riddle.”

“No thanks. I’d like directions to the lake, though.”

“Then answer my riddle, and I will tell you the way.”

I was sensing a theme here. “You wouldn’t rather trade?”

Her eye shifted toward an alcove. A crude bed of rags, dirt, and other stuff lay within. “If you wish.”

“Ask the riddle.”
Please ask the riddle!

She cackled again. “Spread on sand or hung on a line. Warm when dry, cold when wet. A hiker’s need, even threadbare. Don’t leave home without it.”

Okay, think about this. Something a hiker would need for sand, but on a line? Tent? No, no. Wait a minute, Bernie’s packing job.
“Towel?”

That produced a chuckle, one of mirth and amusement. “The towel, yes, warm and soft and fluffy. And spring fresh.”

I’m so docking your pay for this one, Bernie.
I dug in the pack and handed the pink towel to her. “Here you go. Enjoy.”

She snatched it with a flash of pale flesh and hooked fingers. Krynee rubbed the towel against her face. “Oooo, soft.”

“Soo ... directions?”

She pointed to the third passage on the left. “That will lead you to the lake. Say hello to Mother Dear, Theo March. Beware of the water, it’ll be your death.”

She knows my last name. Figures.

*     *     *

The hemp rope vanished into the darkness as I let out the final length. I gave it a tug, testing the anchor around the slick stalagmite. It dug into the groove I’d carved out of the limestone, bracing it with rocks for the illusion of security. The flowing water trickled down the side of the cliff face, little more than a damp dribbling.

I wrapped the rope around my hand, letting it bite into the heavy leather gloves. I belayed down, holding the other end to arrest my fall. The soles of my boots scraped against the wall, the treads keeping me from slipping as they tore off wet moss and slime. Below, the floor rose up, illuminated by the fading lamp light. I had swapped out the batteries an hour ago, only to find them little better than the original pair.

I fell despite my precautions. The rope went slack, maybe slipped, maybe cut. Luckily, it was a short fall and I landed butt-first in muddy sand that squished and oozed. A wet cold seeped into my jeans. Next to me, the rope coiled down in a heap. I saw the loop had come undone.

“Dammit!” My voice echoed loudly in the cavern.

I flashed the waning light around, seeing it glimmer across the surface of a large body of water. The ceiling lay hidden in the dark, but the walls drew my attention.

Bones. Dozens and dozens of bones, sealed and preserved by time. Large ones, small ones. Femurs. Ribs. Vertebrae. Skulls. Not dinosaurs but beings of the imagination. Goblins, griffins, and the like. Fantastic creatures found only in storybooks and legends.

“Fossil Lake,” I murmured. “Not what I expected.”

“None do,” someone replied, in a syrupy and cloying voice.

I hung my head, sighed, and turned around.

A plump figure rose up, half submerged, from the lake. Pale green skin, scaled and wet, glistened in my light.

“Hi. You must be mother.”

“A visitor. How delightful.” She smiled, warm and welcoming, the emotion reflecting in her all-too-human eyes. “I am Mira of Cetus. Pleased to meet you, young changeling.”

“Theo.”

“What brings you here, Theo?” The water rippled as she walked out of the lake, clad in a dress of seaweed that hung to her knees. Finer strands of kelp sprouted from her scalp, woven into a single, long braid.

“Dropping off a package for someone. Am I going to have to answer a riddle before I can?”

“Aren’t you a quick learner! So clever, and so handsome, too!”

“Thanks,” I said, though after the previous two encounters, I didn’t have to be that clever to put the pieces together.

“Does Mother need to ask the riddle? Or do you already know the answer? Or does Theo need a hintsie?”

What sort of game is Bernie playing at? I hate being kept in the dark.

“Is the answer chocolate bars?”  I dug into the kit for the last of the items Bernie’d packed, items that had seemed odd before but made sense now. Not that he’d bothered to let me know.

“Very good! Such a good boy. Someone prepared you well. That is the answer and I will claim my prize.” She held out a scaled hand.

I gave her the bars. “Here you go.”

She sniffed them, looked at the wrappers, and nodded. “Dark chocolate from Switzerland. A fine quality and more than adequate price. You may approach the lake.”

I did so, though I had the proverbial bad feeling about this. All I had to do was dump the contents of the pouch Bernie had given me into the water. Piece of cake, he’d said. Yeah, right.

The wet sand, still squishing beneath my boots, was very gritty and pale. Calcified. Less like sand, more like …

“But,” said the lake-woman in a lilting tone, “what will you give me for the next boon?”

And here it comes.

“Next boon?”

“I told you that you may approach. How, though, do you plan to leave? Your light is fading and your rope lies unsecured. Without my help, you’ll never escape this cave. They will find your bones, gnawed and scattered.”

And, eventually, pulverized into sand, like the stuff I was walking on.

Great, I found Grendel’s mother.
“Rock and a god damn hard place. What do you want?”

She tutted reprovingly. “Mother would only like a kiss on the cheek.”

Okay, she’s not hideous. A bit scaly, wet, and smells like seaweed. You’ve kissed worse, Theo.
“Just a kiss?”

“Is that so much to ask? After all that Mother’s done for you?”

Grendel’s guilt-tripping mother …

“That sounds reasonable enough,” I said.

Mira glided toward me, leaving a groove in passing in the bone-meal sand. She turned her head, presenting a finely-fishscaled cheek.

Just like duty-kissing a weird old auntie. Nothing big.

I puckered up and gave her a quick peck. Her skin was cold. I tasted salt on my lips.
Salt?

Before I could pull back, a gush of water filled my mouth. Like her skin, it was salty and cold. It flooded in, choking and gagging me. I pushed away, falling backwards in the sand, vomiting up silty greenish water in heaving gasps.

She gave me a scolding, disappointed look. “You resisted my affection. That makes me unhappy, Theo. That makes Mother very unhappy. My children need another brother, a strong and handsome brother like you.”

“Children?” I coughed out another lungful, my eyes watering and nose burning from the acidic fluid.

“All who come here are my children,” she said, gesturing around. “So many children in the past, each a treasure upon which I showered my love. But then they’d grow up and turn from me, from their own dear Mother. They’d want to go away forever.”

I glanced again at the bones embedded in the cave walls. Gnawed and scattered, she’d said.

“So you ate them, to keep them with you?”

“Consumed them with the sorrow of a mother’s sacrifice.” She heaved a watery, mournful breath. “Now Mother has only two … a useless worm and a wicked girl. Not a fine, strong, handsome son like you.”

“I’m not your son.” The long knife appeared in my hand and was slapped away almost as fast, a stinging blow as something hard and scaly smacked it from my grasp.

“Tut. Tut. No weapons, young man!”

But the touch of the blade had shattered her illusion. I saw her as she truly was. A long serpentine body stretched back to the lake, following the groove in the sand. Thick scales covered her torso. Dozens of tentacles sprouted from her shoulders, ending in sharp claws.

Bernie, what the fuck were you thinking? No violence, my ass!

“Mother will have to punish you for this impertinence,” she gurgled, through a mouth now more suited to a large eel.

“Good luck with that,” I said, still backpedaling, groping for anything I could use to defend myself while scanning frantically for the knife.

“Join my family,” she said, undulating closer. “In time, others will come along. Perhaps a bride for you. Mother would love grandchildren. Strong and healthy and loving.”

“That’s not happening.”

“Disobedient boy!” More of the massive, tentacled body flowed out of the water, growing thicker and thicker with each revealed foot. A phosphorescent glow throbbed from some large mass submerged in the lake.

What the fuck is beneath the water?
Sand slipped under my heels as I scrambled backwards. A dizzying nausea threatened to spill more of my stomach onto the floor.

My hand fell on the kit, almost empty now except for the leather pouch.

Restorative juju, Bernie said. For her, I’m betting.
I thrust my hand in, wrapping my fingers around the leather bag just as her cold, fishy tendrils wrapped around me.

“Come to Mother!”

She lifted me into the air.

“Go to hell!” I tossed the pouch past her. The tie unraveled, spilling out tiny metallic shavings that scattered across the surface like rain drops.
Please let this work.

Smoke billowed up from the lake, a swirling cloud that hung on the surface. Her shriek echoed off the walls as she convulsed, squeezing me with a sudden force, expelling the last of my breath and the choking water. Then I went tumbling end over end, hitting the beach, skidding into the rock-and-bone wall, shattering the miner’s lamp.

In the darkness, I heard her wail and splash, spitting out words in an unknown, guttural language. Then the noise faded away, leaving only the soft sounds of diminishing ripples lapping on the lake shore.

Well, that job’s done,
I thought, letting my aching head sink onto my crossed arms.
Guess they’ll find my bones some day.

*     *     *

“Get your ass up, boy,” said a familiar, gruff voice.

Bernie?

I squinted at sunlight streaming through blinds, blinking rapidly at the sudden intrusion. Sunlight … blinds … a window … a motel room … and a wizened gnome at the bedside, giving me the hairy eyeball.

“What the hell?” I rubbed my face. “How did I get here?”

“Marcus and Steve found you in the van,” he said. “Soaked to the bone, bruised as hell, but alive. I’m guessing that you took a wrong turn. You never could follow directions.”

Something about this didn’t add up, but I latched onto the last part. “That map of yours was shit,” I said.

“No it wasn’t.”

“It was. And no wonder you packed all that extra crap. Could have goddamn warned me.”

“You took care of the pouch?”

“It’s deep-sixed, along with whatever lurked in that damn lake.”

He grunted with satisfaction. “Good. That’s been a bother forever. Did you find anyone else?”

“Her children. I think.” The thought brought back more disturbing memories.

“Captives, not children,” Bernie said. “She lured the unwary to serve her. I guess they hauled you out as thanks for freeing them, and then disappeared.”

I wasn’t too sure about that, but what other explanation could there be? I’d gotten from that bone-embedded cave to the van somehow, after all.

“Now what?” I asked.

“We’re done.” Bernie grinned at me. “The cave collapsed, we got paid twice, and everyone’s happy.”

Everyone?
I let it go for now. “What do you mean, paid twice?”

“I’ll explain on the way home.” He pointed toward the motel bathroom. “After you take a shower. You smell like the dank.”