Creation Dreamer: A Heroine Fantasy Adventure (Calpso Goddess Series: Book One 1) Page 10

  A black floating figure darted one way and then the next. Never still, I couldn’t quite see where it went. I sat at the table in the hard metal chair scanning every inch of the walls for a clue, an answer, an escape.

  I laughed out loud. “Well, I rather like it here. It reminds me of the place where Fisher lived. His old farmhouse kitchen. So comfortable and so lovely. Yes, I had a lot of good times in this kitchen.”

  Fisher’s family farm. Iced tea. The smell of hay. They know my history but not my thoughts.

  Their laughter grew. My feet felt wet. I glanced down and there was an inch of water on the floor. And it was rising. The sink was not running. It wasn’t coming from any specific place yet the water was rising—fast.

  The fog may be my best bet. I can go out the back and stay along the walls of the house.

  I turned the knob on the back door, but it didn’t release. I pulled and kicked it. I grabbed one of the metal chairs and threw it against the glass in the door, and it didn’t break.

  My heart pulsed out of my chest. My lungs wheezed trying to suck in the air. The water was up over my knees and approaching my waist. It was murky, dirty brown. Trying to pull myself to the other door was like wading through molasses, and then I saw them. Black zagging lines in the water coming straight at me. One hit my leg as another lifted its head up as it shimmied across the top of the water to me with its mouth open and fangs out. I dove down as it swam in through my hair and beyond me. I pushed back up for air as the water reached my chest.

  “We don’t quit. We don't quit. Oh, Fisher, we don’t quit.” They taunted me. “We think you don’t like snakes, human girl. They like you.” One curled around my ankle and began to pull. “Ah, the fear. We love the fear. More. More fear.”

  Fuckers. And guess what? I’m not human.

  I took one last good breath and dropped below the surface. I made a circle and asked the water for an image of a way out. Nothing happened. My magic didn’t work. The snake had my ankle pulling me as I lunged toward the cabinets. The table floated. I pulled it toward me and then down as hard as I could to smash the snake. That was useless. My hand reached the sink as I held tight. The water was a foot above my head. I felt the first bite. It was in my right thigh. The fangs like shards of metal piercing my skin and then the poison, burning, and heat rising up inside my veins.

  Was this what Mom felt?

  Then another snake in my side. Every vein inside my skin was on fire scorching me from the inside out.

  I let go. I couldn’t fight, and I had no way out. So I floated up as I was riddled with more fangs. The table bumped me. I was back on the houseboat with Fisher, safely tucked into his arms.

  “We want to keep you for a while.” The Arae started in again, but I just didn’t care. This time I wasn’t leaving Fisher. They could have what they wanted. “We think you are fun. We have fun with you and you give us fear. We think you are not able to light the Lodge anyway. Worthless and ridiculous. We will keep you.” They knew who I was. They knew I was the Creation Dreamer, but they had no idea I was willing to die to escape their confinement.

  I relaxed. Tranquil. So like the ebb of a shifting ocean tide, I welcomed death. Just the thought of the nothingness brought my entire being into peace.

  The water drained. My eyes blurred. The snakes were gone. All went dark. Fisher. Dark. Something warm around me. Dark. The sound of metal. Dark. Silence.

  8

  What’s a Sister to Do

  Nothing made me madder than waking up. Snapped back into the armpit of reality, I smelled the staleness of them in the room with me. The Arae. Sounds of shuffling and whispering, but no detectable words. I lay like a corpse even though my bones shivered from the wet clothes, but I didn’t want anyone to pay attention to me. Or even know I was coherent. I needed to be tiny. Go unnoticed. Stay peaceful. Hold no fear.

  The bites stung. If only some of Aldon’s miracle cure elixir was there at my disposal.

  My eyes cracked open just enough to see the space around me. I was in a corner in the shadows peering through repetitious, tightly squared patterns of a metal cage. My cage.

  Slow your heartbeat.

  I clenched my jaw and pushed down the acid in my mouth. Flat. I was laying flat, and the cage was only a few inches from any side of me. Like a metal coffin.

  I could only catch glimpses of what the Arae were doing. Odd lights, glowing orbs of some kind were laid across the floor and tables. The Arae seemed focused, bent over tables, hands moving. As long as they were busy, the captors wouldn’t notice the captive. That’s what I kept telling myself, anyway.

  My eyes scoured each cage nook. No hinges. No locks. Above me were large hooks in the ceiling and some kind of tubing running from just above me down to their tables. Little droplets of light came down through the tubing, and from what I could see, the Arae dripped the light into the orbs. Made me think of George at the tap filling a mug.

  Shuffling came closer to me from the corner.

  Be still! I screamed in silence at the top of my lungs.

  The confinement was overwhelming as the walls nudged in closer. Even with open meshing, I couldn’t breathe.

  Whoever it was passed by me without showing any signs of curiosity. But my fear was tangible, probably juicing them up in silence. A door opened from behind my head. The Arae stopped and bowed their heads. A deep bow—like we gave to our Mistress. Then all eyes shifted to me.

  Fuck. Do not be the center of attention.

  Nothing slowed down my breathing.

  Just stay lifeless—

  Something prodded the top of my head. Painful. The Arae’s laughter made me clench every muscle as sweat dripped off my forehead.

  Gods, Maggie! Be still. Just be still. Maybe this will all be over fast.

  I could see Aldon’s face grimacing as she scolded me for getting into this mess. “Despicables,” I heard her say.

  I was with her, what, a day ago? An hour ago?

  Timelessness. When all you knew was time, to not have it was to be lost in an abyss. Like the structure of life itself was ripped away. I never imagined I’d miss the earthquakes.

  Their laughter jarred me back.

  If they want my fear, then that is my bargaining power. I can offer them that. Be their plaything—get out of this fucking cage and find an escape.

  There was another prod to my neck and down to my chest. I didn’t move as my shirt was lifted up, allowing for a clear shot of my breasts.

  “Not bad.” I knew the voice, but I thought I was hallucinating. “Not bad at all.”

  The others laughed again. There was a snap over my head and the Arae went back to their labors. The shuffling halted beside my ear as I slid my eyes fully open. She was there in full sight looking down at me.

  “No, it can’t be you?” My voice cracked.

  “The best pretender of them all.” She looked different. She looked the same. This was the foreign face I’d seen in the shield.

  “But it’s not possible.”

  “Ooo-woo, what? You saw the chandy in me so I can’t possibly be standing here now thinking of ways to torture you?” Laughter and spit. She made sure every word spoken to me was overheard. “Maybe you can find a way to scoop that up and put it on your wounds. You just might heal.” Everyone laughed, but she winked. “Aldon is not so special. You humans are just that dumb.”

  Humans? You’re protecting me?

  “We are not dumb.” I blurted out.

  “You do not see anything. You do not know anything. The pompous pretenders are you.” The Arae all grouped together. Whispers and nods preceded their mass exit. My head was too confined to see much, but I did make out them passing a sharp metal poker to the traitor.

  “Please. You have got to be fucking kidding me. We’re friends.”

  “We are not friends. I have been collecting the information we needed. That is all.” The sentences spoken much louder than they needed to be as if someone could hear her. “You are a weak set o
f energy. No one really knows why humans were designed for the Earth in the first place. All this power you have and you don’t use it.” Back by my side, she continued. “There is a saying: if you don’t use your power someone else will.”

  “That’s my fucking saying and you know it.” I wanted to rip her jugular out. If she had one.

  “You don’t want it, so why waste it?”

  “So you just take it.” I got it. I understood. Human energy was food for the Arae. “You feed on our chandy.”

  “And you feed off the Earth. We all have to eat, Maggie. See, you think energy cannot be made or destroyed. That is what you were taught in school, right? Well, it isn't true. Energy is absolutely finite. It stops manifesting when the master design is tampered with. Humans didn't bother to think and realize the bigger effects of what they were doing. The balance of life was broken. I mean, who let the yang out and put the yin in a cage? And now you all have to pay the price.”

  “Why not just kill me? Take my energy.”

  We looked deeply into each other’s eyes. “Because we can feed off your fear for generations. So we will keep you. Just like this. How delicious you are.” Spoken in staccato and then in a whisper only I could hear, “And thank the goddesses that you are here at last. Safe and sound.” She squatted and tucked in closely to my ear. “Don’t worry. They can’t feed off you.”

  “What?”

  “Calypsos. They can’t digest our energy.”

  “Our? Are you really Calypso?” I wanted an answer. “And what the fuck happened with Fisher?”

  “This is all I can do for now.” Her whole demeanor seemed rushed as she kept an eye toward the door. She shoved the metal poker into the side of the cage until something clicked. “We have a mass feeding in a few moments. When you hear the harp strings, it’s feeding time. Make your break for it then.”

  “Tell me you don’t feed that way?”

  “No, you silly thing, I mean come on. You know I just pretend.” She winked at me. “Ah, for fook sake, Maggs, we all pretend, don’t we?” The harp strings sounded again. “No time for questions. I’ll explain it all later. I can’t be missed in the Great Hall.” She jumped up as the door opened. “Yes, I am coming right now,” was all she said as she headed toward the door. “And for the record, Magpie Turnley, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”

  I heard the door close as the room fell into complete silence. My knees pressed up and the top of the cage released. I was free. She freed me. The pain returned, so I risked it and scooped up the ground where she spit and packed it into my thigh and my side. It weaved inside me and the pain ceased. I wasn’t sure what shocked me the most—that she was Arae, or that she knew how to heal me, like Aldon.

  We all pretend.

  The corner shadows were piled high with broken orbs, jagged edges, like chipped glass. An empty witching ball, of sorts, still smoking and giving out short-lived images of a person’s life, but I was too foggy to really make it out. The harp music continued to signal feeding time—my one shot. Of course Chama hadn’t given me a map with my escape route, and I had no idea where I was. The harp sounded again.

  Focus, Maggie. You have to get out of here.

  The one door out glowed a deep red and had a knob made of brass. Bigger than it needed to be. Oddly out of place. With the face of a lion on it that poked into the room by a couple inches. Gratefully, the door was unlocked.

  It opened into a deserted hallway. I heard the Arae down to the left through big rounded double doorways. Yellow. And to the right, a faint bit of light dripped down steps that rose up and into, well, a path to anywhere.

  Out. Just find a way out.

  Curiosity won, and I found myself on the ground peering under the yellow doors. It was the Great Hall with bright light at the far end. As bright as any chandy I’d ever seen; it was actually eerily beautiful. The sway of tunics flowing on the hundred-or-more Arae whose feet seemed elevated on lights radiating up from the floor. More light came through the ceiling, streaming down like tiny clusters of crystals the way snow used to drift down over mountain peaks in moonlight. Mesmerizing and peaceful. The Arae collected the light in orbs—orbs alive with the essence of human souls.

  That’s how you take the chandy and why I never saw it. You pull it down out of our bodies.

  Something grabbed my heel. I kicked back hard and fast, hoping to hit crotch level. The grunt was from Thomas.

  “What are you doing?” His eyes were wide open and his voice animated. “You weren’t supposed to leave the tree. I have been looking everywhere for you.”

  I went back to watching under the door. “They are eating. Us.”

  “You shouldn’t have come here.”

  “You knew. You fucking knew, and you didn’t tell me?”

  “It wasn’t my place to tell you. And I really didn’t have much time.”

  My hand went to his throat.

  “Okay, look,” he grimaced, “you don’t have to worry. They can’t eat the energy of a Calypso. It is forbidden.”

  “What do you know about the Calypsos?” I let go and went back to watching.

  “My sister. My sister was a Caly. Her name was Jaye.”

  Jaye? The one Scratt told us about.

  “They took her,” he said, rubbing his throat. “The Regys took her. I didn’t know why. I didn’t understand. But in exchange for my family’s silence, I was promised a future with them. I spent all my time trying to find her, but slowly, I just got numb to it. The money. The perks. I had it all; the great distractions from living in reality. A fucking hot mess of success, I always used to say.”

  “So you just forgot about your own gods-damn sister?”

  “No! I didn’t forget. I gave up.”

  “Well, no wonder they were happy to indenture you. You lost your soul a long time ago.” The Arae made toasts.

  “Have they seen you?” He seemed nervous, glancing at me and then behind us and then back under the doors.

  “Oh yes, and I have seen them.”

  “I’m surprised they didn’t kill you, actually.”

  “Me, too. But life is full of surprises, right?”

  Secrets. Keep this secret. He will never know how I got out of that cage.

  “You see, Thomas, I saw a key, and I waited for the vengeance gals to leave the room, and I used a little magic to make the key float over to the cage. And I got out.” An obvious and playful lie on my part. “We need to go.” He furrowed his brows. I jumped up and grabbed his arm. “Let’s go.”

  Thomas led the way toward the stairs, but shuffles were headed straight toward us. We dodged behind the stairwell and in through an unlocked doorway. Orange. A landscape quite expansive, like an underground cave, but with an ecosystem of water arteries and stone chiseled pathways up and over knolls and wall ledges. The knolls radiated purple and blue hues of light filling all the empty spaces.

  “What is this place?” I asked.

  “I don’t know much about it. They call it the Storage Facility.”

  “It’s beautiful.” Looks are always deceiving. “I don’t understand something. If the Arae feed on fear, why take the human chandy at all? Why not just up-level the fear game?”

  “Eating you—I mean, eating the chandy is making them stronger than they have ever been.”

  “For what?”

  “I don’t know. They don’t tell me. What I can tell you is they are not gods. But I believe they work for gods. I just don’t know which ones.”

  “And if this is about Celestial war?”

  “Then the Arae are a part of someone’s army. They live in a state of confusion and doubt. They only do what they’re told. Man, oh man, if left to their own devices, they would blow themselves up. They are only powerful when they are led.”

  “Yes, but led by whom?”

  “I swear, I don’t know. I don’t know anything. They don’t tell me anything.”

  “And how many of them are there?”

  The pause
was longer than I hoped. I really hoped he wasn’t trying to count them in his head.

  “Infinite. There are infinite numbers of them.”

  I felt gut punched. We stared at each other in long and deep silence. A silence that was only broken by the one sound guaranteed to make me shiver.

  Thomas tucked in close to me. “That’s a coyote. We have to get out of here.”

  “You said I dropped the coyote into the prayer bands. Why would she be here?”

  “Don’t know. Prayer band beings work for the gods, too. If the coyote has been sent back, and the Arae want to keep you here, then someone thinks you are worthy of stopping.”

  The bark moved. It was behind us. The taste of iron filled my mouth as I unlocked my jaw.

  “This thing you have.” Thomas whispered from behind me. “This thing you can do.”

  “Can’t do it yet!”

  “Fine, but it seems to me everyone is sniffing you out because the power you will have makes you a human god, doesn't it? A human goddess.” He held the ‘s’ for a long time. “Awaken your full power, and you get to harness the Earth and dream up any reality you want. Imagine it. Your free will on steroids, and no one can stop you. If we weren’t such close friends—friends who take care of each other no matter what—I’d want to stop you, too, if I were them.”

  His lack of subtlety really humored me. Not that I was about to trust him.

  My finger twitched, and then my hand, the sensation rising up my arm and out through my entire body.

  No, not a snapshot now.

  The heat of blood in every vein inflated. There was a dance inside me that started as small sensations of swaying. And then the drum beats. The Goddess. Green fields. River streams reflecting full moon energy. Four deer eating leaves. Four birds soaring in the sky. Four wolves calling to me from the hill. Four bears climbing trees. My whole being in fluid motion like time and timelessness had come into union at last.