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Ann pulls matches from inside her dress. She strikes four to no avail. “They must’ve gotten wet on the boat.”
Bessie is adamant. “I’m not goin’ through there wif no torch.” I lay my hand on the stick and put the magic to its purpose. The torch flares to life.
I am repulsed, and yet I have to know, so I reach toward the swinging arms of one of the bodies. I touch the cold, hard hand, and in my fright, a bit of magic escapes. The body jerks, and I jump back.
“Gemma…,” Ann gasps.
A fierce wind shakes the bodies in the trees, rattling them like leaves. Their eyes snap open, black as pitch and ringed in blood. A dreadful chorus of high-pitched shrieks and moans and low, angry growls of suddenly wakened beasts rises in the forest, clamors in our ears. Underneath it all, I hear a terrible refrain scratching itself into my soul: “Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice…”
“Gemma, what did you do?” Ann wails.
“Turn back!” I shout.
We’ve gone no more than a few steps when the path disappears under our feet.
“Which way?” Mercy shrieks, running in circles.
Wendy stumbles forward, feeling the empty space with frantic arms. “Don’t leave me, Mercy!”
“I don’t know!” I shout. Circe said to stay to the river, but she said nothing about this. Either she lied or she doesn’t know. Either way, we’re alone, without aid.
Suddenly, a voice drifts through the din, calm and clear. “This way. Quickly…”
A path of light appears in the frozen grass and ice.
“Come on! This way!” I call. Brandishing the torch, I hurry through the trees, following the thin ribbon of light. Bodies kick and grab at us, and it is all I can do not to scream. A man reaches for Pippa, and Felicity’s sword is swift. His severed hand flies, and he howls in outrage.
I would howl myself but it’s as if I have been struck dumb with fear.
“Go!” I croak, finding a small sliver of voice at last. I push my friends on and run after, staring only at their backs, not daring to look left or right at the hideous things that swing from the trees.
At last we reach the edge of the gruesome woods. The din quiets to a gasp and then to nothing, as if they have all drifted back into the same sleep.
We take stock for a moment, leaning on each other, sucking cold air into our lungs.
“What were those things?” Pippa manages to say between breaths.
“Don’t know.” I wheeze. “Might have been the dead. Souls lured here before.”
Mercy shakes her head. “Weren’t like us. Didn’ ’ave no souls left. Least I ’ope not.”
Bessie points ahead. “’Ow will we get through that, then?”
Blocking the way is a wall of black rock and ice as tall as it is wide. There’s no going around it as far as I can tell.
The wind whispers again. “Look closer….”
At the base of the enormous cliff is a tunnel hung with blood-streaked rags.
“Follow…,” the wind urges.
“Did you hear that?” I ask to be sure.
Felicity nods. “It said to follow.”
“Follow it where?” Ann peers doubtfully into the dark tunnel.
No one charges ahead. No one will be the first to push aside the foul rags and step into that narrow crevasse.
