Page 15 of A Queen Of Broken Realms
Shit fuck shit.
I scramble up the wall as another two arrows land close by, lodging into the wall. And then I’m over, landing in the darkness and the fog, hemmed in by the wall behind me and the jagged stone on either side. There’s only one narrow path ahead.
I run.
I duck and weave around the rock that juts out at sharp angles. I startle a small creature and it scuttles up the cliff. Thorny branches reach toward the path and catch my legs, scratching blood out of my skin. The scent of the sea and decay grows stronger with every step.
I feel the presence of crawlers drawing closer to the house and I ask them for only one thing. I don’t even know if they can hear me like I can them, but I ask anyway. Over and over.
Save Ashen.
I hear two sets of footsteps down the path behind me. A weapon scrapes against the stone. An arrow whistles through the fog and I duck, not breaking stride. It clatters against the cliff as I run past.
The footsteps grow louder. Whoever chases me is much faster than I am. I don’t look back to see who they are. I press on as quickly as my bloodied feet can take me, gripping my arrow, pumping my arms.
The sea crashes against the rocks ahead. The fog thins. The path opens up as the cliffs pull back to display the Black Sea below, the oily waves disappearing into a veil of fog before the horizon, a never-ending night.
“Take her down!”
Another arrow flies past me, disappearing over the cliff, then another. One hits my leg and lodges in the back of my thigh, but I don’t stop. I burst onto the landing. I run straight off the edge of the cliff.
One last arrow slices through the side of my neck on its way to the sea, tearing with it a strand of tangled hair that flutters like a banner in its wake.
And then I’m falling.
I see a flash of my sister Aglaope. I still feel her hands on my chest as she thrust me into another sea.
But now I’m falling, flying, facing the distance, not my dying sister whose body plummeted after me from the cliffs of Anthemoessa. No, this time I’m watching the black water that rises up to meet me as though it can’t wait to show me the horrors that live beneath the surface.
The instant my toes touch the sea, I feel it.
Hell.
The impact of hitting the surface tears the arrow from my leg. But that pain is nothing. Nothing when the cold and oily water envelops me in its punishing grip.
Hell is not fire.
Hell is an endless sea of anguish. It’s a countless mass of minds whose thoughts bleed into one another. No privacy. No space. Nothing but constant pushing, touching, jamming up against one another,intoone another, in a churning sea of grief. It’s the desperate need to find space or safety or silence, without even knowing which way is up. Hell is a claustrophobic sludge. It’s the scent and taste of decay that fills my mouth, flooding my nostrils.
I vomit into the putrid water, a mix of salt and death. I keep my eyes pressed shut as I kick and flail, trying to reach the surface.
It’s too thick.
The water clings to me. It pushes me down. My lungs burn. It’s taking too long to get to the surface. I can’t seem to move anywhere. My head fills with the sorrow and rage and panic that I sense all around me.
I’m already drowning, from the inside out.
There’s something else…something beneath me. A presence from the deep. And I am a lure in the ocean, tiny and bright. Appetizing.
The fetid, foul souls seem to push away, leaving me surrounded by liquid that feels lighter. I open my eyes and I’m in a bubble of dirty water, utter blackness surrounding me beyond my little pool.
Except for beneath my feet.
A growing light emerges from the depths. A monster from the deep, and a channel of clearer water is opening beneath me as the souls desperately try to get out of the way.
I kick harder. The salt burns the holes in my leg and my neck. I take long strokes with my arms, still clinging to the silver arrow as I aim for a surface I can’t see. The blue light beneath me glows brighter, the creature racing from the depths, eager to claim a rare prize.
My lungs have nothing left. Burning. Desperate burning. I can’t hold it. There’s nowhere to go.
