A Breeding Darkness (Complete)

(10)

Zerkalo be hanged! Lucy needed to get home! She turned the penknife toward her palm, frantically trying to slash the skin and jerk herself awake. But before she could feel the sharp sting of pain, a Denizen knocked her arm and her penknife flew into the air. Gasping, Lucy tried to snatch it back, but it bounced on her fingertips and into the grass. The shadows ate it alive, and no matter how much she dug through the blades of grass she couldn't find it. As she scrambled, the Denizens pressed in on her back, launching into the air in a jump attack.

Rolling onto her back, she narrowly missed the first Denizen, and then jumped to her feet to avoid two more. She dashed between their ranks, plunging into the darkness and watching as her lantern made every shadow jump and dance as it swung wildly at her side. Her legs pumped as she dodged Denizens that dissolved from the darkness and scraped at her with suddenly sharp and tearing hands. She felt the sleeve of her jacket rip as one caught her, but she yanked her arm back and broke away.

Stumbling forward, Lucy's boot caught on something solid and she went sprawling onto her palms. Her lantern tumbled next to her, falling on its side and barely staying lit. The flame struggled against gravity, and Lucy found herself in a steadily shrinking circle of light. She pulled herself onto her elbows and grabbed at her lantern. But each time she tried, she missed as the fear shook her vision until it swam. The Denizens giggled as they crept closer.

Gritting her teeth, she narrowed her eyes until the lantern stopped swimming in her sight, and she snatched the handle. The metal was cold against her palm, and she slowly raised it and let the flame burn bright again. As her eyes scanned upward, she saw that she was right by the edge of the wood. The smooth bare trunks stood out against the darkness in shades of gray, white, and brown. She'd been so close to it. She might die right at the edge of her mission. The Denizens were already grappling with her boots.

Then, before she could turn around to face her doom, she noticed movement in the woods. A blur of darkness on the edge of the sphere from her lantern. A whoosh of wind filled the area, brushing the curls back from Lucy's face as she stared into the woods and wondered if there was something much worse than the Denizens in store for her.

Even the Denizens stopped what they were doing, their laughter quieting as they listened to the rushing wind. Lucy stole one glance back at them and saw their eyes die back down to simple pinpricks instead of the white flames from earlier. Their tongues hung motionless. They were no longer looking at her, but up, into the branches of the trees.

With shaking breath, Lucy rotated to follow their gaze, looking up to where the paper-thin leaves rustled in the wind. Her lantern light didn't reach all the way into the branches, but she still saw the glowing red eyes watching them all. First one, then the other, as the creature that belonged to them moved its head to see the whole situation. Lucy drew in her breath, remembering the last time she'd run into this creature. She and Alisdair had only made it out because of the flare, and now all she had was a small lantern.

Lucy opened her mouth, perhaps to scream or beg, she wasn't sure which, when the massive bird launched from the tree branches and down into the light. It's oil-slick wings shimmered purple and green as its talons slammed into a nearby Denizen. The bird flew up into the darkness, and a moment later the Denizen plummeted to the ground and disappeared in a puff of dark mist. The bird swooped down again, knocking a Denizen to its death and ripping off the head of another with its beak. The Denizens around it grumbled in anger, their eyes returning to flames and their unhinged smiles turning to snarls.

While the bird prepared to take off again, a Denizen jumped on its wings, pinning it for a moment while the rest of the Denizen's swarmed forward. She saw their now sharp hands digging in deep to the bird's side, drawing crimson blood. Their teeth sawed at the feathers and the bird shrieked in pain as it struggled to knock the Denizens from its back and get back to the safety of the air.

Backing away while the dream creatures fought, Lucy looked around for anything that would cause enough pain to wake her up. She needed something sharp or piercing. Dull pain rarely was strong enough to wake them, but the sting of something like a knife blade always did the trick. For one moment, she wondered if she should just let the Denizen's capture her and use their claws and hands to send her back with the pain, and yet something about their glee made her hesitate. Would an attack by a dream creature count the same as a blade she'd brought from the real world? Would she heal from a massive wound? Even if she did heal when she returned, dying, even in a dream, seemed too terrible to try.

As she searched, she listened to the shrieking of the massive bird and the Denizens' angry moaning slowly turning back to the laughter that had haunted her before. The Denizens were winning against the bird.

As she dug around in the grass, hoping to find a shard of stone or anything else she could send herself back home with, she found herself brought up short as she heard a whisper in her ear.

"Heartsore One," it said. The echoing, strange, female voice from before. The one that had spoken to her right before Lucy had seen the bird for the first time in Zerkalo. She looked around, but all she was a pair of eyes, much like the Denizens, but not flaming or shuddering. They stared at her, slowly drawing her in until it seemed like only they existed.

"What do you want?" Lucy whispered, her heart in her throat.

"Heartsore One, why are you running? Don't you want to destroy the devouring thing that threatens your world and ours?"

Lucy shivered, feeling cold and filled with a strange sort of melancholy. "It's too dangerous. I need to get home."

"But you will leave the bird to die," the voice said. "It didn't have to help you. It could have stayed in the woods and let you be consumed. Now it is dying because of you."

"It attacked me before. You saw it. It's not saving me at all," Lucy said, pulling her attention away from the eyes and becoming slowly aware of her surroundings again. The Denizens still grappled with the bird, though she knew it wouldn't be for much longer.

"It wasn't trying to harm you. Can't you see what that means?" the thing said. "Learn to look beyond."

"You already said that! What does it mean?" Lucy shouted, but the creature's eyes blinked out of existence as suddenly as they had appeared.

The bird screeched behind her, its voice shredded and desperate. She stared in horror as the Denizens swarmed in, covering it in their shifting gray bodies until she could only just see one glowing red eye and hear its voice, growing weaker. Somehow, it sounded almost human, almost like a person crying out for help. She remembered another cry for help, one she had answered long ago and that had cost her so much. Her heart shifted as she stared at the bird, and before she could stop herself, she had already decided that she'd repay it for saving her from the same Denizens that were currently overwhelming it.