Hollowed Ground

Chasing Wisps and Mirrors

Conna and I scanned the crowd for Thynol, but he was nowhere to be seen. Ravensguard was a mostly human town. Finding a tall furbold shouldn't be too difficult, even with the more varied carnival workers scurrying about.

Things have a way of getting lost here and never being found, Dirla had said.

But Conna had been certain Thynol would find us. I tried to shake my worries away.

We came to a lake. Gondolas pulled by swans drifted past as the water glimmered in the moonlight. I stopped, staring at the ripples. My mind swam and I felt unsteady on my feet.

Ravensguard didn't have a lake. We had a river but it was east of the town center. The ravines got marshy in the rainy season. Sometimes a little pond might even stay long enough to freeze over during the winter, but we were on high ground not low. Besides, it had been a drier spring than usual. There hadn't been much marsh at all.

Where had the lake come from? It was as if it had been conjured by the carnival itself.

A carnival that conjured lakes and where things disappeared and were never seen again. It was madness.

"Hello!"

I turned at the sound of the unmistakably chipper voice, relieved. We hadn't lost Thynol to the carnival after all. He stepped towards us with a glass orb in his large hand.

"Is that Dirla's orb?" Conna asked, placing her hands on her hips.

Thynol nodded. "She gave it to me."

"For finding her boy?" I asked.

Thynol shook his head. "It's not her boy. His mom is still lost."

Lost. That word again. 

"But you found him?" Conna asked. "You took him back to Dirla?"

Thynol nodded. "She's not his mom. She's just a big cat with too many legs. Marigold's not his mom either. She said I was a big flirt."

"What?" I asked, confused by his choice of details.

"The orb was hurting Dirla so she gave it to me." Thynol continued as if that explained everything.

"How –" Conna began but at that moment a spirit like a ghost without a form drifted past us. It shimmered in the night air, rippling like water.

"Shiny!" Thynol tried to clap both his hands over the specter but it moved too quickly. It circled around us several times as if were caught in a wind only it could feel. We stared uncertainly as it swirled and swirled around us. At last it stopped and darted in a single direction, flickering past the booths and tents that ran along the carnival path. Thynol darted after it and Conna followed.

I hesitated. The formless spirit seemed like an unnecessary distraction. We weren't here to chase mystical beings through the carnival we were here to find Zabylna, but . . . I didn't want to lose Conna or Thynol. Not in a place where things got lost forever. I sighed and took off after them. My shovel and travel pack rattled against my back as I ran. The silly wings the carnival made us wear flapped as if they were real. We wove through the crowd, following the wisp of light. The smell of sugar and searing meat permeated the cool night air and I realized I hadn't eaten since morning. My stomach grumbled but I kept my focus on Conna and Thynol as they darted after the specter. My side ached. I was strong from digging but not used to running long distances. The noise of the carnival whirled past me in a sickening blur of color.

We stopped at last in front of a circular tent with teal and ivory canvas panels. A decorative suit of armor stood next to the door with its helm down and a sword and shield in arm. For a moment I thought I heard a whisper of breathe behind the gills, but it stood too still to have any kind of living entity inside. The words "Cythral the Moon Weaver, Speaker with the Dead" were painted over the tent door.