A Breeding Darkness (Complete)

(18)

For a moment, Lucy and Joon were silent. No other sounds greeted them. No birds called in the trees. No wind rustled the leaves. No animals burrowed, no streams burbled, no bugs flew. Everything was gone in this wood. It was asleep, just like the Dreamwalkers who inhabited it. All that disturbed the pressing silence was Joon's breath beside her, and the sound of her own heartbeat mingling with her exhales.

"What do we do?" she whispered, feeling like her voice was thundering across the land.

It took Joon a few seconds to respond. "I'll see if I can conjure up a lantern to replace this one."

Suddenly, light burst across the clearing they stood in. It was a sickly green, not something natural at all, and when Lucy glanced over to where Joon stood at her side, she saw a strange looking lantern in his grasp.

It was shaped more like a tear drop than a lantern, with a curved and twisting handle that hooked over Joon's wrist. It was the same obsidian color as the compass, and a ghostly green flame burned in its interior. No glass separated the flame from the air, but Lucy felt no heat when she moved closed to it. It also had no trouble casting its emerald light much farther than a flame that size should have been able to.

"You're turning out to be really helpful," Lucy said, grinning and patting Joon's shoulder.

"I'm glad to be of help," he replied, as serious as a school master. Lucy was beginning to see that humor wasn't his strong suit, but his earnestness was still somehow endearing. She could see a bit of what the few people who had met him in the real world had said about his steady and cool demeanor. It was well known throughout Strana that he was exceptionally good at keeping his emotions intact, making him hard to read for the visiting dignitaries from the surrounding countries. No one knew if Prince Joon was one step away from declaring war on the countries that continually tested the country boundaries with their armies, or if he was one step away from signing a peace treaty with them.

Lucy was seeing now how that could be. Despite holding a lantern he had conjured from his mind, a compass that was leading them to a mountain that spawned darkness, and being covered in his own blood while wearing women's clothing, he seemed as calm and unbothered as if he was standing in his castle in his royal robes.

"We should keep going," Joon said, reaching for the compass. His fingers had just touched its shining surface when Lucy's eyes landed on the lantern hanging from his other wrist. Something was happening. Green cracks formed in the obsidian shell, racing upward toward the handle. When they reached the part that touched Joon's skin, he yelped and jumped backward, shaking his arm to dislodge the lantern.

He gripped his wrist as the lantern fell, smashing into the ground and crumbling as if it was made of sand. The light exploded from it in shoots of sparks, exploding across the sky like the fireworks released on royal birthdays. The green sparks hung in the air just below the tree branches like low hanging stars. While the flame had been heatless in the lantern, its fragments hanging in the air were setting off heat that made Lucy squint and back away.

"What happened?" she asked, covering her eyes from the green glare. Joon sucked in a breath and looked down at his wrist. A burn mark in the curved shape of the lantern handle covered the top of his wrist.

"I think it had other plans," he said.

Lucy pressed her lips together. So even Joon's items that he made fresh were being corrupted too. Was anything safe at all in Zerkalo?

Before she could explore this worrying thread of thought, Joon grabbed her shoulder and shoved her sharply forward. Stumbling forward, she tripped on her own boots and only barely caught her balance again. She spun to face him with a scowl. "What was that for?"

He merely shoved her again, then again.

"Stop!" she said, each time nearly tumbling over.

Joon stared her down, no expression on his face but his hands trembling slightly as he shoved her once again. "Run. Now!"

Lucy shoved him back, anger rising in her. "Don't keep pushing me," she barked.

"No time to talk! Run!" Now she saw panic in his eyes as he stared at something over her shoulder. Her chest went tight and she slowly turned to look behind her.