From Light to Dark (16 page)

The break had taken days to heal, but when they had let him out, he’d felt stronger than ever.

This ointment seemed to work differently. Instead of days of healing, it took moments. And instead of increased energy, Balor felt exhausted.

His eyelids drooped, and he fell backward.

“Help me lay him down?” the old man asked. “I’m weaker by the minute myself.”

Balor felt two cool hands lightly pressing on his back to keep him from toppling over. For the first time in a long while, he relaxed completely. The soft, lovely face of the Dark Person hovered above him, and he felt a pain in his heart when he noticed the bruise on her cheek. He had given her that.

“Caer,” Eref’s voice said from far away. Balor was drifting off. “He won’t sleep for days like I did, will he?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “He’s badly injured.”

“But he can’t,” Eref said. “Remember? The Exile said he won’t live that long.”

Balor felt the tiniest pang of fear in the pit of his stomach, but the lethargy overpowered it. What did he care if he died in his sleep? That was better than he deserved.

Images of his recent sins flowed through his mind. He’d broken into homes, he’d killed a defenseless animal, he’d attacked this poor girl, and he’d tried to murder Eref.

Fading out of consciousness, Balor wrapped himself up in a blanket of self-loathing. He only wished he could have lived long enough to make everything up to Eref.

“The coma should buy him a little more time,” the Exile said. “Just let him rest.”

“If you think it’s best,” Eref said. “I want to help him.”

Balor stopped listening to their talk and instead focused on the soft lapping sound of the cave’s river, grown calm again after their battle. The rhythm was so repetitive, safe, and simple. It was almost like a lullaby.

You’re here with a friend. Everything is fine. You’re here with a friend. Everything is fine.

Smiling, Balor finally fell asleep.

It was a good way to die.

Riddles

Eref paced the open cavern less than an hour after Balor had passed out. His cuts and bruises ached all over, but the Exile wouldn’t let Caer tend to him.

“You said you wanted to defeat the Governors, right? Then I have to train you now. There’s no time to lose.”

“Sir?”

“Yes, Caer?”

She cleared her throat and asked, “Why are you so weak?”

“I’m weak because I defied the Governors. Everything rests on Eref now. Had I followed procedure, I would have gone to the Shade this month, transferred life to the Governors, and been given enough strength to last me until next month.” He paused. “But if I had, Eref would be dead as well.”

Caer looked at Eref for a moment before turning back to the Exile. She seemed to wait for him to continue.

“It took almost everything in me to create that hole in between Light World and Dark World. But it had to be done. For the sake of the Safety.”

Caer nodded, a somber expression on her face.

They’d talked a lot since Balor had fallen asleep. She knew the Exile had brought Eref down from Light World to bring back the Safety. She knew about Eref’s magic and that he needed to break through the Governors’ riddle maze to use the Moonstone. She knew everything.

Well, almost everything.

She didn’t know that this journey would be Eref’s last. He couldn’t think of how to tell her, and it appeared that the Exile was leaving that up to him.

“I want to help,” she said.

“Caer, no—”

She pursed her lips. “Why not? Look at your friend lying there. He’s going to die, isn’t he? And that makes you ready to fight. Well, I have a friend who’s about to be implanted with that horrible device, and the same thing will happen to her. I can’t just sit here and do nothing.”

Eref looked at her. She was so determined and yet clearly so frightened at the same time. Exactly how he felt.

“Please, Caer. It’s going to be really dangerous.”

The Exile interrupted. “What concerns me the most is not whether Caer can handle the danger. We should focus more on the obvious problem at hand.”

“What’s that?” Eref couldn’t think of a more obvious problem than looming death.

“Her birthday,” the Exile said.

Caer lowered her head.

“What? What about her birthday?”

“It’s in two days,” Caer said under her breath.

“No.” He’d forgotten.

“The soldiers have already been dispatched to capture her,” the Exile said. “Sending her into the Shade with you would be delivering her to the Eighteener Entrance.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Caer said, lifting her head. “Can’t you see I need to help him? I need to do it for myself as much as for Vul. This has to stop. If Eref’s the one to save us, then I want to be there with him.”

Her conviction almost frightened him. How could she be so certain any of this would even work? Was it worth the cost?

But she still didn’t know the cost. Eref didn’t entirely understand it himself.

“We’ll see,” said the Exile. “First, I have to train Eref alone. He needs all of his concentration to prepare for the riddle maze. Will you watch over Balor while we step into another part of the cave?”

Caer pursed her lips again, but she nodded. “Be careful.”

“Thank you.”

They walked away, and Eref looked over his shoulder at Caer. She bent over Balor and touched his forehead. Then she leaned in to listen to his breath. Her kindness amazed him. For a moment he wondered whether she had magic hidden within her, too—the ability to care for someone unconditionally.

The Exile led Eref to a smaller room within the labyrinth of caverns. With no river to reflect the distant illumination, the Exile had to light a candle to help Eref see. This room was more colorful than the main area. Candlelight flickered all around him, bouncing pinks and yellows off the jagged walls. More limestone spikes hung from the ceiling like hundreds of spears frozen in time.

“She shouldn’t come with you to the Shade if you can avoid it,” the Exile said when they reached the middle of this new room.

“I know.”

“If anything went wrong, they would take her. It would be better if she stayed in the cave. The soldiers won’t look for her here, and Light and Dark people never come this close, even when they need to hide.”

That was true, at least for Light People. Eref had always known the cave existed, but he wouldn’t have ventured anywhere near it for anything in the world. As far back as he could remember, he had feared the cave. Everyone did.

Now that he thought about it, though, he couldn’t remember why it had seemed so frightening. The Learning taught all kinds of emotions Eref hadn’t questioned.

“Exile?”

“Mmm?”

“When you said I wouldn’t live through this—”

“That was true. You won’t.”

“How can you know?”

“Because it’s not a matter of fighting your way through the Governors. Trust me, with their age and with the Moonstone in your control, you could overpower them easily.”

“Then why can’t I just—”

“Like I said. It’s not a matter of fighting. Your first task will be to find a way into the Shade undetected. That will be difficult enough on its own. Next you’ll have to get through their maze of riddles. I have to work my way through it every month, and the puzzles change each time.”

“Why are they protected by riddles?”

“They’re paranoid. They live in fear of someone coming through who isn’t invited. Puzzle-solving is an art that is never taught in either Light World or Dark World. This way, they know that only I can get through, and I am their slave.”

“And what if I can get through the maze? What will I do next?”

“All you have to do then is protect the Moonstone. Once there is danger, the Moonstone will want your help. Always remember—the Moonstone is healthiest in the Safety. It wants the Safety. Guards will try to stop you, of course. But if you are able to hold the ring in your hand for about twenty minutes, you should have the strength to create a light bright enough to cast the darkness upward, out of Dark World.”

“Where will it go?”

“It will fill Light World. Eventually, the light will have nowhere to go but down.”

“So Light World will be dark, and Dark World will be light?”

“Yes. It will go back and forth like this, with light and dark pushing against one another.”

“Then what will happen?”

“Soon they will merge together, forming a single world.”

“The Safety,” Eref said.

“Exactly.”

“Wait,” Eref said. “If they need the Moonstone to live forever and they’re afraid of this place, then why don’t we just keep the Moonstone here until they die?”

“That would take many years,” the Exile said. “They have enough energy stored from the Moonstone to last them a very long time. Stored energy may not be as powerful as fresh energy, but it will keep them alive. Even if they died, the Safety wouldn’t be reformed. That can’t be done by anyone but you.”

“What will happen to me when I do it?”

The Exile smiled almost sadly. “It won’t hurt,” he said. “When you protect the Moonstone for twenty uninterrupted minutes, the power will be so strong that you will create the Safety directly from the palm of your hand. It would probably go even faster if you were protecting the Moonstone along with something else. A person. It would save you time, but it’s impossible without taking someone else’s life with yours when you transform.”

“Transform? You mean—”

“Yes,” the Exile said. His smile widened. “You will
become
the Safety.”

That didn’t make sense to Eref, and apparently it showed on his face.

“You will die, yes, but not the way you are used to people dying. When you become the Safety, your body will burst into a mixture of shadows and light,” the Exile explained. “This mixture will be a great power that will join Light World and Dark World forever as the Safety. I know it is hard to understand, but every living being will essentially exist in the power that you created, the power that is you. That is the Safety.”

“Will I know it? Or will I really be dead?”

The Exile shrugged. “No one knows. But before any of this happens, you need to brush up your riddle-solving skills. That’s what will get you in to the Governors.”

Eref went along with the Exile’s training, not fully grasping what it meant to
become
the Safety, but never losing sight of what was important: the end of the Eighteener Entrance.

No other person should suffer as Balor had.

The Exile took Eref through a series of verbal puzzles, some mathematical, some word-based, and pressed Eref to solve them as quickly as possible.

It took a lot of mental effort, and many of his answers were incorrect at first. Not until an hour or more had passed did his mind begin to empty, and the questions became a bit easier to solve.

In between each puzzle, the Exile required Eref to meditate for several minutes in order to focus his powers. The breathing techniques at first seemed like a waste of time, but soon he realized they were helping him think more clearly.

Then the Exile brought Eref to an area of the cavern where some pictures had been painted, and he asked Eref to solve a puzzle that had no words or direction at all.

It was difficult. Eref stretched his mind, his head aching, the temptation to beg for clues mounting all the time. But he knew the Exile wouldn’t give him any clues. That wouldn’t help Eref on his way to the Governors.

He had to learn to answers these riddles alone.

“Here,” the Exile finally said. “Hold the Moonstone. It can help clear your mind.” He handed the ring over, and Eref took it. Clearly the Exile had picked it up from the place where Eref had thrown it.

The gem felt smooth and still cool to the touch. Having possession of such an important item amazed him. It also terrified him, and he remembered the feeling that had made him want to throw it away. This stone represented a responsibility so serious it made Eref’s head spin.

“Eref!” Caer’s voice rang out a sudden alarm.

Without a word, Eref abandoned the puzzle and dashed back through the twisted hallways of the cave, ignoring the slowly limping Exile. Eref pushed the Safety temporarily from his mind. Caer had sounded frightened. He shouldn’t have left her there alone...

When he arrived, he found Caer standing alone at the bank of the river, her black eyes misty and wide.

“What happened? Are you all right?”

“He ran away,” she said in a trembling voice.

“Balor?”

Eref’s breath caught in his throat. How could that have happened? The coma was supposed to help him live longer. Now the clock ticked again on his shortened life.

“I’m sorry, Eref. I couldn’t make him stay.” Caer fell into Eref’s arms and started to cry. “It’s my fault.”

“No, it isn’t. You can’t control him.” He stroked her head and wiped her tears, though he searched the cave with his eyes for any sign of his friend. “Tell me what happened.”

“It really is my fault.”

“Of course it isn’t,” he whispered. But she cried so hard her body shook. “Calm down. He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“No, no,” she said. “That’s not it.”

“Then what happened?”

“Eref,” she cried. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done it.”

“Done what?”

Caer’s soft face, bruised and flooded with tears, turned up to face him. She had soaked his bloody clothes with tears. “Eref,” she cried. “I made him wake up.”

Promise

Eref pulled away from Caer. She stood in front of him, still sobbing and shaking.

“You what?”

“Eref, please. I’m so sorry.”

“Why did you do that?”

“I don’t…know,” she said, hiccupping. Her voice was a mixture of mumbled words and sniffles. “I…just…did it…I’m…so sorry.”

“What do you mean, you ‘just did it’? The Exile said he needed to sleep.”

“I know—”

Eref heard his own pulse pounding. “He’s going to
die
, Caer!”

“I know—” Caer dropped her head into her hands.

“He’s my best friend!”