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Rebekah gingerly swiped the cold tear from my cheek once she had finished, her features soft with concern. “Lady, have I said something to upset you?”
I shook my head, nudging off the impulse to sob.“No,” I whimpered and tried my best to grin through the heartache. “I just really loved that story.”Pulling my knees back up to my chest, I let her comb through my hair in silence. I didn’t know if I wanted to know the answers to any more of my questions.At least not for a while.
The loud burst of my door being thrust open pulled me tothe present. Tearing my eyes away from the sprawling hills and valleys made of orange stone and deeply sage forest below my windowsill, I turned toward Rebekah as she entered. She wobbled a bit, trying to balance the plates of fruits and pastries and assorted teas in her hands and on her forearms. This, she had told me on the second pass of the sun and moon, wasbreakfast.
My eyes drew themselves over her small body, trying to pick out any changes that may have occurred overnight. Thick onyx hair swung between her shoulders down to her belly as she turned to close my chamber. I admired the way her beige wool dress swished across the floor when she turned back around, breaking into a smile that enlivened her round face. Everything looked just as I had last seen it.
It was strange to be in a room with another person. Kalen had been so distinctly different from me that I had been too frightened to appreciate his presence. Where his legs were stocky and strong, mine were lean and delicate. Where his arms were dusted with hay-colored fuzz, mine seemed less so. Smoother. Since he last disappeared into thin air, I hadn’t seen a glimpse of my tall and mysterious conservator.Projecting, that is what the people of this world called the disappearing. Which was just as well. I preferred Rebekah. She smiled more than Kalen.
It seemed she liked my company as well. Her voice was warm and caring every time we bid each other, “hello”. And though she and Kalen were the only other people I’d met so far, I knew from our sparse conversations last night that the Well was home to many.
Hundreds of Guardians, the soldiers of Leoth, were trickling through the dozens of halls and caves that were carved out inside the bedrock. I wished I could see them all. And count them. And maybe give them my “Hello,” too. I had been practicing.But considering the haste with which Kalen shoved me into a secret chamber, I thought it might be premature to start making friends.
When I asked Rebekah about what Kalen meant bythe others, she confirmed that he had only meant the Guardians. She reassured me that none of them would cause me harm. Apparently, my arrival was a closely held secret, although, for what reason, neither of us knew. My arms tingled with the prospect of a new world, a new secret, new memories to be uncovered. And the wind in these canyons was far less biting than that on top of the Mountain.
I finished ravenously attacking the breakfast plates as Rebekah pulled out a new set of clothing for me to wear. My stomach was bulging, and my throat tasted sickly sweet after the dozens of pastries I ate. I would have to learn to stop stuffing my face, I decided with a moan.
“I should have warned you about the confections,” Rebekah answered for my discomfort. “They are just as tempting as they are vengeful.”
I only sighed in agreement.
“Alright,” she said, “it’s time to squeeze you into this mess.”
Rebekah was pulling at the ropes of silk trousers the color of the moon lilies in my grove, trying to loosen the waist enough for me to step in without falling. I gripped her shoulder as I stepped in one foot at a time, careful not to jut my leg into the unforgiving divide. She tried, and failed, to disguise her chuckle at my clumsiness with a cough.
“These clothes are different today,” I observed. Rebekah had already begun folding the ropes over my waist in a complicated pattern I would never be able to replicate. She handed me a matching silk shirt with padding inside the shoulders. I grazed my fingernails over the jewels sewn into the bodice. Slinging thefront over my chest, I waited for her to button the dozen cloth-covered rounds that went up the back.
“Kalen has called for you,” she said quietly, waiting for my reaction. I knew she felt my muscles tense and my spine straighten out. The lump in my throat scraped its way down to the pit of my stomach to sit heavily with my breakfast. I didn’t,couldn’t, say anything in reply.
“Oh,” was all I pushed out.
Rebekah said nothing more on the subject. I figured she was either unaware of the details, or she didn’t want to put me on edge. I thought about telling her it was too late for that, but before I could, she looped the last button. The only encouragement she gave was a tap of her fingers at the nape of my neck. Then she hurried out of the door to my room, this morning’s crumb-coated dishes piled high in the crooks of her elbows.
I turned towards her, panicked. She couldn’t just leave me alone in here. There were so many questions to ask, so many possibilities of confrontation I needed to prepare for. Pacing away from the edge of my bed, I started to speak. She stopped me with a slight raise of her palm and a brief shake of her head.No, the gesture seemed to tell me.
“You will be collected within the hour, Gwynore.” Rebekah hesitated, her pinched mouth quivering. It was obvious she knew more and was debating on whether or not to tell me. With one squeeze of last night’s clothes against her chest, she let go of her breath and decided against it. Rebekah floated away without another look, shutting the door behind her.
Counting. I was alwayscounting things.
Fish in the brook, stars in the sky, the number of times my feet struck the earth. In my World, counting every step I took always made me feel some sense of accomplishment. That, in an infinite expanse of trees and sand, there were still borders, even if I had to make them myself. Here, inside the confines of my room, my toes bent inside the stiff cloth ofshoes. The numbers never stopped. I was lost in them.
A rake of marble against stone knocked me back into my senses. I whipped around toward the sound, nearly tumbling into the large hunk of pretty wood—the dresser—that sat across from my window. Rebekah had told me the name while brushing my hair at it this morning. Her thin fingers running across my scalp as she sectioned away each thick piece of wavy lock was the calmest I’d felt in days. I played with the carved knobs that ran down the side, all four-pointed stars, smooth to the touch.
Now I gripped the stars in my hand, tightly, staring at the other side of my room.
My chamber was wide open.
Through it, entered an ovoid cluster of light bobbling in the air. The orb floated around each of my shoulders, kissing warmth into them, before stalling in front of me. Waiting, it seemed. I leaned in to inspect it further. My nose braced the cloud of energy surrounding the orb and it burst into a million pieces that enveloped my entire body.
I was burning. Not in searing pain, but in a surge of power. I was cloaked in a peaceful and brilliant layer of magic. The magic, I supposed, began pulling me out of my bedroom—against all orders—and into the forbidden hallway. It was a relief knowingthat I could start counting until I got to wherever the light was taking me.
Together, we floated up the spiral stairs and through the long corridor into the landing where I had previously arrived through the universe. The morning had cast a cool haze over the canyon that was so unlike the golden shades that had drenched the Well when the sun hung low.Sunset, Rebekah had told me just last night, though some of the words she’d prattled off to me, I was beginning to remember on my own. Somehow, I’d knownsunsetas soon as I laid my eyes on it.
The light pulled me to an archway similar to the one that led to my room but on the opposite side of the crest. I hadn’t noticed it before but now found myself propelled toward it. The sweet melody of magic that swirled around me distracted my senses. A song more beautiful than that of the tree beasts and far more ethereal. The pulsing of it nearly masked the sound of heavy feet thudding towards me, their echo shortening in breadth. Whoever was coming, was closing in. Fast. Too fast for the chance of escape.
I was going to be seen.
I stopped walking immediately, cast my body against the nearest wall, and sealed my eyes shut, bracing for impact. The feet stomped right by me and began to fade out into silence. I popped open my eyes.
