The Spirit Walker (BOOK ONE): The Ripple

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Womb of Earth

I follow Elder Diyani down a twisting staircase carved from rock and earth. The walls are damp, narrow things- so close together that I can plant both my palms against them if I stretch out my arms. I find myself thinking that Calum would have a difficult time squeezing his hulking frame through here.

He is at the castle, going through the ledgers with Laird Maclean, handling the business of the Tour, while I am following Elder Diyani into the depths of Lookout Mountain- or Grandfather Mountain, as it is known in this Ripple.

For once, Maise and Ness do not follow me, on Elder Diyani's orders. Today, she had said, only the Aniwodi are welcome.

Torches blaze in hollows carved into rock, the only light in the gloom. My throat is tight, my chest uncomfortably constricted. The further we descend, the more unsettled I feel.

Elder Diyani turns around to face me, her face creased into a frown.

"Your breathing is heavy, child. Do you need to rest?"

I swallow hard and shake my head.

"We're underground," I manage to choke out, and Elder Diyani's frown deepens.

I struggle to find the words to explain my increasing anxiety, but can't quite figure out how. There are uncomfortable flashes of memory-a staircase into the dark, a locked door, the light of one lone bulb, the damp, musty smell of an old basement.

The same smell that fills my nostrils with every breath I now take.

"I don't like being underground," I finally manage.

Elder Diyani eyes me over the hook of her nose and shakes her head, before continuing her descent. I follow her, mutely, my anxiety rising ever higher.

I miss Calum. I miss Maise. Surprisingly, I even find myself missing Ness.

By the time we reach the bottom of the seemingly never-ending staircase, my nerves are stretched thin, and my chest is so tight with panic I can barely draw in a breath. My hands are clenched so hard that my nails dig into my palms.

I follow Elder Diyani through a tunnel that Calum would have to crouch in, my heart thumping madly at the base of my throat. Tha-pum-tha-pum-tha-pum- I am surprised the sound doesn't echo off the walls.

Elder Diyani steps out of the tunnel into a cavern, and all the breath whooshes out of my lungs.

The cavern walls stretch high, taller than fifty men stacked one on top of the other, tall enough to kiss the sky. A rushing column of water pours from the inky blackness above into a pool at the cavern's base. Thousands of pillar candles flicker at the water's edge, turning the cavern into a cathedral of stone and water and light.

"Ruby Falls," I whisper, the sight both foreign and uncannily familiar.

"You have been here before?"

I nod, my eyes riveted to the waterfall, and then shake my head. "It's... it's different, in my Ripple, but..."

"It is a sacred place- we call it The Cavern of Tears. The Kituwah matriarchs of Clan Maclean gather here for their rituals."

I swallow hard, and can't quite find it within me to tell Elder Diyani that this sacred place of magic and ritual is a cheap tourist attraction in my Ripple.

"Come," she says in Sagwu, after several heartbeats of silence, extending her hand. Her palm is cold and dry, and a shudder ripples down my spine as she draws me to the water's edge, the pool dark as ink, the ripples gleaming like obsidian in the candlelight.

"I was told of your dream," she continues in Sagwu- kneeling on the stone, my hand still in her grip. I kneel across from her, mimicking her posture. "Why did you not come to me sooner?"