From Light to Dark (2 page)

The Eighteener Entrance. Eref’s goal had been to change the world, and by that he meant abolish the Eighteener Entrance. He didn’t know how. It had been just a kid’s dream. He used to imagine he’d find a better way. He’d announce his plans to the Governors. He’d be heralded as a prophet. And Balor wouldn’t have to be afraid anymore.

Balor had feared the Eighteener Entrance for as long as Eref could remember. They had been raised together in the same compound by the same shepherds. From the cradle, children learned about the process.

“Young minds are fragile and give in easily to figments that overtake the soul. The Eighteener Entrance will be your passage into adulthood, when you will no longer be plagued by ideas or confusion or the desire for change,” the shepherds had told them over and over.

But the years went by, and Balor and Eref watched as their friends returned from the Eighteener Entrance. They found it hard to believe this procedure was a good thing. Not one person had come back the same. In fact, no one who had been to the ceremony even remembered his own best friend.

The transformation had always horrified Balor. Eref had put his own fears on the back burner, dreaming they’d find a way to stop it. Secretly, the two of them had plotted to change the world….

The fall continued in this seemingly endless place of darkness. Maybe this was death. Perhaps the stones had killed him, after all.

Maybe, if he was lucky, he was on his way to Heaven. That was a nice thought: Heaven should be dark and quiet, just like this. If only he could stop falling.

But all at once, the soft sound of chirping met his ears.

Then something sulfuric, mingled with the sweet smell of grass and trees, trailed toward him. He sensed that solid ground might lie down there somewhere, which suddenly frightened him even more than the falling. Would he be crushed when he finally hit the bottom? If he survived the fall, what would he find at the end? New light? Creatures? People?

Danger?

Without warning, Eref crashed into what was almost definitely a treetop and tumbled downward through rough branches and twiggy bird nests. His broken bones splintered even more, and he cried out.

Though he’d clearly passed through the dark tunnel, the light never returned. He squeezed his eyes but still saw nothing. A blow from a stone must have made him blind.

The horror of that hummed through him for a second, but he couldn’t let that ruin this moment. He had been given a miracle.

He was alive.

And then, all at once, it was over. Choirs of crickets and birds welcomed him to the soft ground. Eref felt wet grass beneath him, and he sobbed as he inched his fingers over it. He smelled its fragrance and imagined its bright color.

He inhaled deeply. A sharp pain shot through his chest.

Now that he had stopped dropping through open space, Eref tried to assess his injuries. It didn’t feel good. He was badly hurt, worse than he’d realized.

Blood still seeped from his chest and head and legs. At least two of his ribs were smashed. His wrist felt grotesquely swollen.

He definitely hadn’t landed in Heaven.

But he had ended up
somewhere else
. Eref laughed through his tears and pain. Somehow, he had escaped Light World.

“Hey.” A quiet female voice spoke a few feet to the left of him. “Are you all right?”

“I fell,” he said, staring blindly ahead. He struggled to sit upright and tried to determine where she might be standing. “I can’t see.”

“You’re hurt.” Soft fingers brushed against his chest, and Eref remembered at once that he was naked.

He reached to cover up and felt another sharp pain in his side.

“Stay still,” the girl whispered. “Here. Take my cloak.”

A small garment that felt as if it were made from moss and leaves fell over Eref, and with his good hand he tried to wrap it around his waist. He felt something else tickle his skin – something soft and light like thousands of silk strands blowing in the breeze. Before he could register what they were, they were gone.

“Where am I?”

“Near the Pyre,” she said. “But….”

“What?”

“You can’t be…. You look…. Where do you come from?” A tiny, cold hand touched his throbbing shoulder. “You aren’t from here – from Dark World, are you?”

“This is Dark World?” Eref squeezed his eyes again and strained, but he couldn’t see the girl. It was impossible to count the lessons he’d had in the Learning about the dangers of darkness and the savage people of Dark World. Had he somehow fallen into that land of evil?

Was this girl evil, too?

He smelled a sour scent, like ointment, and something cool and wet rubbed into one of the gashes in his leg. It tingled, and the pain in that spot vanished.

“Yes,” she said. Then she tapped his chest and ran her fingers along his broken ribs. “You’re so badly hurt. The fall from the tree didn’t do all of this to you. Did someone attack you?”

“My people. In Light World,” he muttered.

The girl gasped. Her fingers retracted.

For a moment, Eref thought she had slipped away. He couldn’t hear anything. Then she spoke again, her voice a few inches farther back.

“I wondered…but I couldn’t believe. You’re really from the cursed place?”

Eref coughed, and something in his chest gave a painful spasm. “There’s no curse on Light World. Unless you count the curse of ignorance.”

The girl didn’t move or make a sound for several seconds. Finally, she said, “You aren’t safe here. These wounds are nothing compared to what Dark People will do if they find you. Come on, drag yourself over here and lie down. I’ll move you soon.”

Her hand guided Eref to something that felt like an enormous leaf. He collapsed onto it.

“What’s your name?”

“Eref. Who are you?”

“Caer.”

“And this is really Dark World? What do you mean, what they’ll do when they find me? Will they…” He hesitated, somehow not wanting to insult her. She seemed gentle, and she had already helped him so much. “They told us your people are… cannibals and madmen.”

Caer sniffed indignantly and brought her silky hands back to Eref’s wounds.

“What nonsense. Here we live in the protective shade of the gods. We have to destroy any beams of light that come from above. That’s because Light World is cursed—everything is so bright there that your skin melts right off your body, and you go blind in an instant.”

He chuckled at this and immediately noticed that the pain in his side had lessened. Her ointment soothed his flesh. Eref took a deep breath, and the aching in his chest subsided, too. It felt as though his ribs were already mending inside him.

“What is this stuff you’re putting on me?”

“For your chest? Opaque Cuminaline,” she said. “It grows in some of the bushes here.”

He’d heard of powerful gems, like the Moonstone, but never healing plants. Still, it seemed to be working. Who could this girl be? She seemed so young. Could she be one of Dark World’s healers? “How old are you?”

“Seventeen,” she said. “Eighteen soon.”

“Me, too.”

“How did you get here?”

“I fell,” he said. “That’s all I know.”

“What happened to you? Did the Light World curse break your bones?”

Eref laughed again. “You’ve got that all wrong.”

Caer’s fingers hesitated for a second over his heart before she continued. “But you said your own people tried to kill you.”

“It’s complicated,” he said. He tried to imagine how she might react to learning that he was a criminal.

“Well, whatever happened, you’re here now.” Her fingers left his body. “Your wounds are healed.”

Eref heard her stand up. He tried to stand with her but wobbled and fell back down with a light thud.

Caer bent over and touched his shoulders. Again those strands of silk brushed his skin. Her hands felt so gentle. He wondered what she looked like.

“No, you can’t stand yet,” she said. “The lotion stole your energy and used it to heal you. All you can do is sleep.”

She was right. At that moment, exhaustion covered him like a blanket.

He tried to speak, but Caer said, “Shhhh. We’ll talk when you wake up. Rest now. Shhhh. Rest.”

Caer’s lulling voice, her mossy cloak, the soft ground, and the impenetrable darkness enfolded him, coaxing him to sleep. Eref let his mind clear and his head fall back.

“Thank you,” he mumbled.

In the distance he heard a rhythmic drumming, like the sound of footsteps. A sluggish feeling of fear broke through his lethargy, but his strength had faded completely.

“Caer, is someone coming?”

“Shhhh.”

Dark

Eref woke up to a darkness so complete he felt he had been buried alive. He stretched his eyelids open several times and instinctively gasped for breath.

“Eref, I’m here. Are you all right?”

He jumped at the sound of the voice. When he moved, he realized that he had been clothed in a mossy shirt and pants. It took him several moments to remember what had happened.

The lights. The End. The stoning. The fall. The crash. The girl.

“Caer?”

“Yes,” she said. “I’m right next to you.”

“What happened? Where am I?”

“My apartment. You’ve been asleep for three days.”

“Three days?” Eref stood up with a start. He banged his head on a low ceiling. He ran his hands along it, realizing that it felt as if it were made of tangled tree roots. Confused, he sat back down. His body felt completely rejuvenated. It was amazing how perfectly her remedy had worked.

“Sorry,” she said. “I think people from Light World must be taller than the people here.”

“Where am I? I heard footsteps before I fell asleep,” he said. “Does anyone know I’m here?”

Caer sat next to him. A cool breeze blew over his cheek when she moved, and cushions underneath him gave way. Eref assumed they were seated on a couch, though it was nothing like the stone furniture of Light World.

“I’ve hidden you,” she said. “I carried you here in a Life Tree leaf.”

“A what?”

Caer remained quiet for another moment. Then she said, “Eref. Can you see anything at all?”

He rubbed his eyes. The darkness almost hurt. He strained, trying to catch any light, but found nothing. “No,” he said. “I’ve gone blind.”

She touched his cheek with her soft fingers. Rested and healed, Eref could pay closer attention to the way Caer felt. Her hands were small and fuzzy—and ice cold.

“You…are…,” she said, pausing between each word. She seemed to have some difficulty deciding whether to speak her mind. Her palm rested on the side of his head for a moment before she pulled her hand away. “Different. You look different from Dark People. I had to hide you from them. The things they do….”

Eref’s inability to see drove him wild. How could he protect himself if he couldn’t find his way around? And he wanted to know what Caer looked like.

“What’s different about me?”

“Well,” she said, “you’re hairless, for one thing.”

“Everyone in Dark World has hair?” Sometimes people in Light World grew hair, and they tried desperately to hide it. Burning their skin or plucking each strand. But it was never long before someone noticed, and they had to go to the End.

To meet the boulder.

“Yes,” she said. “We have hair all over our bodies. Once in a while, some poor creature will be found, whose hair has fallen out. And—” Her voice wavered.

“And what?”

Eref sensed Caer shiver next to him. It reminded him of the way his body had trembled the first time he watched a stoning.

“I won’t let them find you,” she said. “If they do, they’d see immediately that you’re different.”

“What if I just wore clothes?”

“No. You’re too tall.” She ran a cool finger across his arm. Her touch felt soft, softer than skin, as if her hands were covered in velvet. “And your skin is so dark.”

“Dark? But everything here is dark, isn’t it? How can anyone tell the difference?”

“We can see,” she said. Her voice was light and delicate—the sound of rain falling on flower petals. “Dark People can see in the dark. Your eyes have no color. They are clear… You can see in your world, can’t you? Even though it’s covered in such blinding light?”

Light…. A pain surged through Eref that had nothing to do with the stoning. Visions of his home, his friends, the places he knew played in his mind. He wanted to be back with his things and his people. He wanted to see again. He wanted to be home.

“I have to go—” But he stopped.

Where could he go?

Even if he could find his way back up that endless tunnel, in Light World, he was a criminal.

And yet, here, in Dark World, he was blind.

“Go where?” Caer seemed to have read his mind. “I thought your people threw you out.”

“They did,” he said. “And anyway, I don’t even know how to get back.”

“Then relax.” Caer stood up and walked to the other end of the room. In a moment, she returned and placed a tray on his lap.

“Here are some fruits and wine,” she said. “Eat.”

Food. His mouth watered. He hadn’t eaten since before his trial.

Eref reached forward and touched the cool, slimy items with his fingers. “What is this?”

“Those are aerps, and the round ones are pregas. And the big thing is a terawmellon. Don’t you eat fruit in your world?”

Eref tasted one of what he guessed were the pregas. They were sweeter than anything he’d ever eaten.

“No,” he said. “We eat beans and vegetables. Like stopotae and nishpac.”

“I’m sorry. I’ve never heard of those.”

A quiet moment passed in which Eref cautiously tried one fruit after the other, half-expecting the food to be poisoned, half-wondering if he even cared. At this point, food was food.

“Is there anything else you need right now?”

As his hunger slaked, his mind felt clearer. And one question was clearest of all. Why was this girl helping him? Apparently, if he were found, he would be in big trouble. Wouldn’t she be in trouble, too, for hiding him?

“You don’t even know me,” he said, turning to face her. He knew he was probably looking an inch or two in the wrong direction. The trademark of a blind man. Another stoning offense, at least in Light World.