A Breeding Darkness (Complete)

(3)

Swinging her lantern up in front of her like a shield, Lucy splashed light across the grass and onto the creature that blocked her path.

It was impossible, but so was everything in Zerkalo.

Beating glossy wings as long across as a building, a massive raven stared back at her with flaming red eyes. Each time it moved its head jerkily back and forth, the red of the eyes left a trail behind, like ghostly drawings in the blackness. Its beak glinted ebony in her lantern light, and when it opened to shriek again, she felt the heat blast from its throat. Its taloned feet dug into the ground, sharp and bigger than her head. This was a bird that could crush her skull in its beak or easily grab her and fly off. This was a creature that saw her as prey in its fiery eyes. It could kill her.

Letting loose a scream, Lucy shrunk back and brought the lantern light with her. The bird melted back into the blackness, but its red eyes still glowed, watching her from first one side, then the other. For a moment it did nothing else, but then it exploded upward in a whirl of wind that whipped Lucy's hair into her eyes.

Trying to keep it in sight, Lucy tilted her head back to watch the red eyes that hovered above her. She tripped on her own slick boots and slammed to the ground on her back. The red eyes began to descend in the darkness above her, and a moment later the bird appeared again in the light from her lantern. Its talons slowly revolved forward, reaching for her as it folded its wings back to turn into a plummeting weapon. If its talons sunk into her flesh, it would be as deadly as a spear. She was facing her death in those obsidian claws, and all she could do was squeeze her eyes shut and wait for it.

The talons slammed into the ground around her, but she felt no pain. When she slowly opened her eyes, she saw the bird had grabbed the turf on either side of her shoulders, but left her untouched. It sat above her, staring at her with one red eye. The ink-black feathers of its wings brushed her face, bringing with them a sudden feeling of overwhelming sadness. She bit back tears as she tried to face it back.

The bird shrieked again, but this time it was quieter. It brought its beak down, brushing the tip along her cheek as soft as a whisper. She pulled back but had nowhere to go. Now the glowing eye sat only a foot from her own, and she blinked back as it stared at her in the silence. Within the glowing red depth there was nothing. There was no sense of the eyes being orbs like her own, and instead seemed only to be holes that let her peek into the furnace of red light that filled the bird. The red swirled around her, filling her vision, and with it came a strange sensation of it truly seeing her. Not in the sense of an animal seeing a human, but in the sense that it knew what she was and that it was almost trying to tell her something. That it was conscious. Something within the depths of that bird's vaporous gaze was somehow... intelligent.

But before she could find out any more, the darkness beyond the bird exploded into a hazy green light, ripping Lucy's attention away. Sparks flew from a flare that arced through the sky and slammed into the side of the giant bird. It shrieked, this time in pain, and its wings unfurled to launch it back into the air. It rose high, away from the next green flare that shot from somewhere in the darkness to hover twenty feet in the air and create a dome of light.

"Shubin!" a voice shouted, and Lucy had never been so relieved to hear her name before. She scrambled to her feet, never taking her eyes off the two pricks of red that showed the giant bird was still hovering just out of the reach of the green flare's light.

"I'm here!" she shouted back, waving her arms. A moment later, a man stepped into the light, carrying a large flare gun and dressed in a similar traveler's garb to Lucy. His wide-brimmed hat pulled low over his face, but Lucy could still see his olive skin and dark beard.

"Alisdair!" She breathed in relief as he crossed the grass to stand by her side. He was a decade older, and built strong and lithe.

"What on earth is going on here?" he asked, his voice sharp. "Did you forget everything about keeping safe in Zerkalo in those months you refused to come here?"

Lucy's mouth pulled into a frown. "Now isn't the time to scold me for not wanting—" She couldn't even finish before Alisdair launched back into his lecture.

"No, if you hadn't abandoned us, you'd know that the darkness was bringing worse and worse creatures every day," he said, his eyes narrowing. "Instead, you were traipsing around doing who knows what in the real world."

"It's easy for you to say that I abandoned Zerkalo," Lucy said, clenching her teeth, "when your territory is still beyond the barrier of the darkness. Mine was swallowed almost immediately."

"That doesn't excuse you," Alisdair said.

"Do we really need to be arguing about this right now, when a massive raven could easily peck our heads off?" Lucy asked, her voice rising to a shout. She waved her hand at the section of the sky where the red eyes watched them as the bird waited for the flare to finish fading.

"You're so troublesome," he muttered under his breath, but then his gaze swept to the bird and worry ruffled his brow and tightened his jaw. "You're lucky I heard you scream when I entered. I almost couldn't find you in the darkness, if it wasn't for that thing making all that noise."

"It's a miracle you found me at all," she said. "But I think we need to leave right now."

Alisdair nodded. "The sooner the better." He offered her his hand to steady her, and she took it, thankful for a warm touch even if it was from the prickly Alisdair Reve. She let go once her heart slowed down enough for her to find the strength in her knees.

While Alisdair kept an eye on the bird, Lucy pulled the penknife from her pocket. The intricate carvings of roses and vines on the bone handle bit into her palm as she clutched it tight enough to make her hand shake. The blade slid out when she pressed a small brass button, and she knew the edge was razor sharp.

"You go first," Lucy said. "I'll be right behind you."

Alisdair didn't argue, which was one good thing about him. When he saw the urgency of a situation, he didn't waste time trying to be gallant. He squatted down by her side, holding out his hand, palm up. Lucy grabbed it and brought the penknife down and across his skin. It split easily, peeling away and leaving an angry red line. The blood beaded in the wound, but before it could properly run along the crevices and lines of his palm, he shuddered and became fuzzy and blurred. His body became like an image in a fogged mirror, and then it pulled apart in the wind, and Lucy was left alone.

Checking on the position of the bird, Lucy saw that the raven had pulled close while she was sending Alisdair back to the real world. It now stood on the ground just a few feet within the circle of green light, its head weaving back and forth. It didn't look like it was about to attack, but Lucy wasn't sure she wanted to stay around and see what it else it had on its mind.

Still staring at the bird, she brought the knife blade down on her palm, and grimaced as the pain washed through her. That was how she woke up. The pain reminded her she was not a being that belonged in this wavering world. She was real, with flesh and blood, and she belonged in a world of the same.

Her vision blurred and as she was caught between the two worlds, she saw a pair of white eyes appear next to the red ones, and heard the strange lyrical voice that had spoken to her earlier.

"Learn to look beyond, Heartsore One," it said.

That was all Lucy heard before she jerked violently awake on the same bed in the inn that she had so calmly fallen asleep on hours before.