Page 113 of The Iron Dagger
Then the creature let out a piercing screech, and Hara looked down to see that her mother was clinging to the creature’s arm. Despite her broken leg, she’d managed to hoist herself up and grip the arm that held Hara suspended. The creature howled, and Hara’s stomach turned when she saw the flesh bubbling beneath her mother’s grip, dripping in long, smoking globs like hot wax.
“Not our child,” her mother seethed, her eyes glassy with rage. “Never Hara, you said.”
Hara swallowed past the horror and shock as she gripped the dagger in her good hand.
With a scream, Hara took up the iron blade and plunged it into a cluster of eyes.
A blinding white hole ripped through its head where the blade’s point struck.
The monster’s grip slackened, and Hara fell to the ground. She scrabbled back, huddling against the wall of the small space with her mother.
The hole grew larger, much larger than any dagger could have created. It seemed to have ripped the very fabric of the air, widening and spreading out so that it was nearly the circumference of a shield before Hara realized there was something inside of it.
Cautiously, she moved so that she stood directly in front of the inert monster, its long arms resting on the floor as the hole spread where its head once was.
Layer upon layer of different realities stretched before her, punctured as though a gigantic awl had torn through them. They revealed glimpses of different realms: glowing hot lakes of fire, powdery blue skies bright with sunshine and swirling clouds, a room filled with perfectly straight trees, a muddy wasteland struck repeatedly with lightning, and on and on they went until they ended at the shining white light at the end of the tunnel.
“What did you do?” her mother breathed in awe, coming to stand beside her. The hole was still widening, stretching resolutely outward. It was now nearly touching the floor of the room they stood in.
“I transformed my dagger into iron. I thought it would injure the creature and give us enough time to escape,” said Hara.
“It tore through the magic,” said her mother, stepping back as the edge of the hole spread towards her feet. It was now wider and taller than a doorway. With time, Hara wondered if it would disintegrate the entire stone.
Pain seared through her shoulder, and her arm felt limp and numb.
“We have to get out of here,” Hara said, taking several steps back. “We’ll use my memory—”
“Hara, look!” said her mother, peering into the center of the rift. Hara took a step closer. The hole had grown so wide that the bright light that appeared at the end of the realms came into focus. In the distance, Hara could make out rocks and water trickling in a shaft of sunlight. It looked like a cave. It couldn’t be . . .
“It’s the outside world,” said her mother, grabbing at her uninjured arm. “Hara, we can escape through the tear!”
Before Hara could stop her, Desideria sat down on the edge of the void so that her feet dangled off. Her shin was crooked and dark with bruising from the broken bone. Hara made a strangled sound, but her mother only looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Come on, little mouse.”
Then she slipped off the edge.
Hara cried out and crouched over the hole. Her mother was already a fast disappearing dot as she fell towards the cave. Hara deliberated for a few moments, and then she swung her feet over the edge. Even if she escaped to the top of the glacier by using her memory, she had no way of knowing where her mother had surfaced. The hole was expanding, and already, Hara felt her thighs beginning to slip. Before she let her nerves get the better of her, she pushed off.
This fall was not as terrifying as the leap into the glacier pit. She fell too quickly to study the torn realms flying past, and sooner than she would have expected, she was landing sprawled on black sand.
“Hara, Hara, are you all right?” asked her mother, crawling to her side.
A whimper escaped her as she tried to use her injured arm to sit up. “My shoulder is hurt. But your leg—”
“It’s broken,” said her mother, and there was something off in her voice, as though she had merely torn her skirt.
The purple and black bruising on her mother’s leg looked even worse in the light. Hara winced as she imagined the pain she had been in while they dashed through the endless halls and rooms. Hara wished that she had her full apothecary kit at her disposal, but she could still do something.
She circled her hands around her mother’s leg and imparted another numbing spell deep into the flesh. Then she applied pressure and willed the bone to knit together. After several moments, she felt her strength waning, and she took a deep fortifying breath. It was not close to being healed, but it could bear some weight without pain. Temporarily, at least.
Hara looked up at her mother and found that she wore a warm smile.
“Merowyn taught you well. I never taught you how to do that.”
Hara bit back tears. She never would have learned this ability if her mother hadn’t been captured.
“What can I do for you?” said Desideria, her fingertips hovering over Hara’s arm.
If Hara tried to use magic on herself, she feared she would collapse unconscious the way she did in the woods when she showed Gideon her memory. Unfortunately, this would have to be done by hand.
