Page 99 of The Book Reader
I lift my hands to my head and bow forward in pain. It feels like nails are being hammered into my head, trying to smash my skull open.
“Rose? What is it?” He reaches out to touch me, but I shrink away; the voices have gotten so loud.
“Find us.”
“Our lands.”
“The voices.”
“It’s ours.”
Shaking, I fall to my knees, and my stomach turns as the consuming voices threaten to choke me. The sand shifts under my hands, and the ground under me gives way. I frantically grab the air, trying to stop myself from falling, but it’s too late. I’m sucked into the hole.
Gaelan yells my name as I fall through the darkness, but I am falling too fast. Before I have time to catch my breath, I start to spin and flashes of light flicker across my vision. I clamp my eyesshut, afraid I’m going to throw up and scared because I don’t know where I’m falling to.
The sweetest of scents hits my face, and I suddenly freeze. Peeling my eyes open, I see that I am floating midair, a few feet from a grassy lawn. Fighting in the hold, I let out a scream as I’m dropped to the ground with a hardthud.
Green grass covers the ground, and flowers of vibrant colors—different shapes and sizes—are scattered all over. A waterfall up ahead flows into a vast lake, and the water looks like it’s made of diamonds when the sunlight catches the surface, making it sparkle. It’s stunning.
Something about this place feels like home. But something else makes a shiver run down my spine. It makes me want to run away. I look up to where I fell from and see no black hole; the sky is just the most perfect shade of blue. The same color blue of a hot summer’s day.
“Gaelan?” I shout, hoping that somehow he has fallen into this place with me. I know I’m not that lucky, “Gaelan!” I shout again, this time walking a few steps, though I’m still met with nothing.
I turn in a small circle to see if I can see an exit of any kind or a way out. It’s almost like I’m stuck in some sort of dream world. A golden glow up ahead snatches my attention. A woman stares at me.
“This is my dream,” I whisper to myself. A sense of Deja Vu washes over me, comforting me. Whoever this woman is, I don’t think she means me any harm. She lifts her hand and ushers me forward.
“Home.”
“Welcome.”
“Protected.”
“Missed us.”
“The power.”
“The key.”
The voices in my head start up again—a rush of babbling that is hard to make out. They are all trying to tell me something in a mix of words, sentences, and sounds. The cuffs are still on, I’m wondering why they are louder now.
“Come,” a voice whispers, making me frown. The voices pause as if sensing something big is about to happen. In my dreams, there were caves as high as you could see; here, there is just one cave with a gold glow emanating from it. The woman disappears into the cave. As I follow her, I know this could be a bad idea, but something is urging me to do so. The feeling of home and safety pierces my heart, making me want—need—to follow her.
The inside of the cave is pale pink. The walls have carvings and symbols, resembling something from ancient runes on the History Channel—markings of a lost world. For a second, when I look at them, I can’t understand what they mean, but just like the book in Gaelan’s library, they start to shake and glow gold before turning into words Icanread. Stepping closer, I run my hand over them, the ridges bumpy under my touch. I can feel the love and care that was etched into each one; they seem so familiar to me, as if these are my own words. My skin tingles, a gold glow shoots out of the wall and wraps around my wrists. A click echoes from my wrists, and the cuff snaps open, falling to the ground with a loud bang.
“I should never have made those stupid things.”
The voice startles me. Turning, a woman with eerie similarities to me stares back at me. She has the same amber eyes and facial structure, but what I can see of her body is covered in small paragraphs, scroll writing, and symbols in gold, glowing in the dark. She smiles. “Odd isn’t it, that they made us look so alike, the first and the last.”
“Who are you?”
She takes a step closer. “I am you, just an ancient version, although I’m not reallyhere, the spells on the walls—our spells—made me possible.”
I frown and step back, unable to believe her. “I must be dreaming again,” I say more to myself than her.
She laughs. “No, I am not a dream. I am more of… a vision. We created me to make this next part a little easier.” She turns and walks farther into the cave. “Follow me”
Staring after her as she walks away, I finally see that she is dressed in a loose, white, backless robe. The attire makes the gold markings more visible—they cover her completely.
