Chapter 72The st thing Ael recalled was falling asleep beside her wife, warm and safe. But now she stood on a path, her cloak haphazardly hanging from her shoulder, bare foot and lost. In the darkness, nothing was familiar. She paused to breathe. She was shaking. She could feel something beneath her skin, and soft, subtle pressure. Magic. She could feel magic in the air. Ael turned, looking around wildly, but could not see smoke from their fires. How far had she wandered? Why had no one stopped her?

  Growing up, Ael had heard tales of unfortunates that walked in their sleep. She had a great uncle who had, apparently, walked so much that his room had to be barred from the outside. She had believed that his story was an exaggeration, that perhaps he had been unfaithful and that it was his wife’s clever way of punishing him. Now, she was not so sure. The bugs were plentiful, and several of them tried to bite her. The buzzing was distracting. She could not focus on anything other than the sound of the bugs and the magic crawling beneath her skin. The moon was a sliver in the sky, barely noticeable on the beach, and under the thick canopy she could not find it to find her way. She knew, at least in part, that she should stay where she was, that if she simply sat, eventually someone would mount a rescue, someone would find her.

  At first, she did sit. She found a fern that looked like the ones Dymion had made into beds, and she sat on its leaves, wrapping her cloak around herself to keep out both the chill and the bugs. But the buzzing beneath her skin and the buzzing from the insects drove her to distraction within what was likely only minutes. She tried to recite her line in her head, going back as far as she could, but then a bug nded on her cheek. She swatted it, but not before it took a bite from her flesh. Her hand came back bloodied. The bite stung, even though the offending bug was dead. She felt another on the back of her neck, and swatted that one before it could bite her. Then another and another nded on her skin. She jumped to her feet. She could not take the feel of their gross little legs on her, the sound of them driving her near to madness.

  Ael began to move away, though she took time to break branches as she walked. She hoped her rescuers could find her. But she could not, could NOT stay still. Not with the bugs, not with the magic, the buzzing and the crawling. She killed another bug, crushing its little bck body beneath her hand, its wings crumpled from her strike. She did not recognize the kind of bug, and was not sure if they were poisonous. All she knew was that they were disgusting little parasites. She needed to get away! She pressed on, breaking branches, leaving her trail for others to find.

  As she travelled, the magic beneath her skin grew from an itch to a powerful longing. She burst forth into a clearing, realizing that her magic was guiding her, but she simultaneously felt like she was drowning. She had no control, no sense of self or agency. In the clearing, she could see the moon and she looked up at it, shaking.

  “What do you want from me?” she demanded. The moon did not answer. Ael took some soce in that; if she heard the moon answer her words she might actually have fallen into madness. In the light, the bugs had abated slightly. She was alone.

  She was alone.

  She sank to the soft ground that was covered in short green pnts.

  She was alone.

  No one had noticed she was gone. She had to have been gone for hours! Why wasn’t anyone here?

  She was alone.

  She had left her ship, her crew, her wife. No one was left. They were all gone.

  She was alone.

  The loneliness and fear were crushing. She curled her knees up under her chin. She tried to force the feeling of loneliness away, part of her heart rebelling. The magic was nearly drowning her, the magic was feeding her these feelings. They weren’t hers. She closed her hand around her wedding bracelet. Ael was not alone. She was lost, but they would come for her. She looked up at the moon, and began to yell.

  “WE ARE NOT ALONE!” She stood, feeling defiant, and gred at the sliver of the moon. “I am loved! You are too, you great big, stupid rock!” Ael wondered if the moon was, in fact, a rock, or an egg that protected the true Great Dragon, or what it was. She tched on to the thought, giving herself something to focus on other than the crushing loneliness. “We are not alone, Great One. If you can hear me. I think you’ve turned your heart to stone, but you are still here. You still hear us. If you didn’t, I wouldn’t have an egg back at the beach. You hear me, right?” She gred at the moon. “I don’t want to be a pawn in these games of fate!”

  An image fluttered through her head, a chess board with a single piece: a white queen. Ael shook her head, dispelling the vision. Why in the hells were the gods so heavy handed?

  “What did I do to gain your attention? I don’t want it!” She screamed into the night. Another vision, or a memory, of her and her wife on their wedding night, repeating their vows. She hissed in displeasure. It wasn’t even the new moon! Why was the Moon able to actually answer her?

  The answer became clear.

  She must have gone mad.

  Truly and completely mad. She sank to the ground again. This wasn’t magic. This was her mind splintering. The scents of the green pnts were vaguely pleasant, a distraction for her overwrought mind. Ael closed her eyes. The madness had taken her after all. She curled into a ball, bringing her knees to her chin, trying to keep everything out. She felt a sob escape her.

  She was so wrapped up in her own mind, in the madness or the magic, whichever it was, that she did not see or hear the great creature until it was too te. Cws raked her back as a great cat rger than a man jumped out of the shadows. She screamed in agony as the cws tore her flesh. She rolled away, bloodied and in pain. The cat stared at her with green, merciless eyes. It was a thing of terrible beauty, this cat. It stalked her, circling her. She reached for her knife, but it was with her boots, her sword with her belt. She was weaponless.

  Ael rolled to the side, her back screaming at her as she reached for a branch. She pulled on it with all her might, breaking off a make-shift club just as the cat pounced again. It smmed Ael into the tree, sending waves of agony through her and robbing her of her breath. Cws tore down her front. She screamed, and tried desperately to have the strength to club her attacker. She just had to drive it off. It was just a predator. It didn’t know anything else. But thoughts of defending herself fled in the wake of pain when the creature bit her arm, pulling hard enough that Ael nearly lost consciousness.

  She was dead.

  She knew it now. She had come here to die. A final mercy from the moon, that her beloved would never know she succumbed to madness.

  Blood will wake the first Sleeper, beneath grief and sorrow.

  The words came unbidden into her head as stars swam in her eyes. She punched the cat’s nose, causing it to drop her momentarily. But she was bleeding, and the cat knew death. Ael reached for her club with her good hand. She would NOT go gently. She had to fight. The sleek bck cat circled her again, breathing heavily as if it were winded.

  Without warning or preamble, the cat suddenly was thrown away from her by a bst of water. A song rose in the darkness, a high, angry noise. Nereida! Ael had never felt more relieved to hear the siren’s song, as discordant and awful as this one was. Nereida stepped into the light, her hand high. The cat, recovered from its sudden push across the clearing, snarled and moved to pounce. It had no intention of giving up its meal.

  “Run,” Ael whispered, unsure if she was asking her wife or the cat. Neither acknowledged her. Ael felt her arms buzzing with her wife’s magic, her blood singing along with the terrible sounds Nereida made. The temperature in the clearing dropped suddenly, as if they had moved backward from spring into the dead of winter.

  The cat leapt at them, cws extended. Nereida’s magic, however, fred outward, shooting a bolt of sharpened ice into the chest of the cat seconds before it nded. The ice penetrated the poor creature’s chest, and the cat crashed into them both.

  It took a moment for Ael to realize that somehow, she was still alive. The cat struggled to get up, to limp away, but the ice was rapidly melting, and the wound was pouring blood. It dropped down, breathing hard, making a cry of pain that seemed universal. Ael struggled to her feet, her own blood loss making her woozy. She limped to the cat that had been trying to kill her, and gently stroked its head as the poor creature bled out. She felt tears pouring down her face. She hadn’t wanted to kill it.

  Nereida’s song changed, the anger and pain gone from it, to a song she sang to her boys at bedtime. A lulbye. Ael felt her own wounds close as water rushed over her. The once-muggy air was dry now, and the heat was slowly returning. Ael held the poor cat until its breathing stopped.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. She was not sure who she spoke to, the cat, Nereida, the moon or herself. She felt Nereida’s arms around her. She gave in to the emotions that had threatened her all night, and began to sob in her wife’s arms. Over her own sobs, she heard Nereida’s soft tones.

  “I have you. I’m here.” The words were repeated over and over until they lost meaning. The words were enough, however, to remind her to breathe, to remind her to fight.

  They sat in the clearing, covered in blood, tears and dirt. Nereida kissed her forehead as Ael’s sobs slowed.

  “I love you,” Nereida whispered.

  “I love you too,” Ael replied, leaning into her wife. She felt the prickle of her magic, urging her to something. She could not figure out what it wanted. It probably did not matter. Not if she were mad. Would Nereida still love her if she was mad? “I’m losing my mind,” Ael whispered after a long moment. “I’m afraid.”

  “You don’t need to be.” Nereida took her hand. “I am not leaving you. And you aren’t. I can feel the magic in this glen. It’s… it’s intoxicating. And I can’t feel magic like you can.” She stood, offering her hand to Ael. “Should we go?”

  Ael stood with her wife’s help. She still felt the weakness of having lost too much blood. She felt stone beneath her feet, hard and unforgiving. The vision that assaulted her showed her dying here, on the sb, and magic bursting forth. She shook her head. That was not the path. They could walk away. Or…

  “Love?”

  “Yes Ael?”

  “Are we fate’s pawns?” Ael closed her eyes, warding off another vision. “Or can we choose?”

  “We can choose, Ael. We can… we could go back to the shore, pretend none of this happened.” Nereida brought her hand up to Ael’s cheek. “We don’t have to py their games.”

  “If we don’t… I don’t think our children will ever be safe from the demons.” Ael hated the tremble in her voice, hated her weakness. Hated that she was not strong enough.

  Nereida was silent a long moment.

  “Did your visions bring you here, love?” Her voice was tender, warm, and strong. Ael nodded miserably. “What’s here?”

  “Salvation. Damnation.” Ael shivered. “We are on an altar. The magic… it is overwhelming. I… I can’t think right.” She could hear music now, not just Nereida’s songs, but the echoes of rain on stone, the buzzing of bugs, the singing of birds. This pce was power.

  Nereida bent down, cleared off the moss and dirt with her hands. The stone sb was carved with ancient runes that had faded or been filled by dirt, except the one in the center. It was stylized in a strange way, but it was the Earth rune. Ael had seen the rune on some of Dymion’s clothing, embroidered in green, brown or beige. Ael looked to the dead cat.

  “An offering of life,” she muttered, not sure what possessed her to do so. She bmed the moon. “If we put the cat there, and pce blooded hands on the altar… we will wake what sleeps.”

  “And if we don’t?” Nereida asked, worry in her tone.

  “Then Earth will sleep. But I don’t know if that is good or bad. She won’t show me, the Moon. But… she might draw me back here again and again until I make the choice she wants.”

  “This is… this is why we are here, isn’t it? The ship crashed here because of visions.”

  “Yes.” Ael’s pain leaked into her single sylble answer. She felt Nereida’s arms around her, holding her tightly. She closed her eyes, trying to block out everything but her wife. She did not want to see the moon. Not now. “I don’t want this gift, love.”

  “I know.” Nereida kissed her head. “It will get easier in time. I hope.” Nereida helped her sit against a tree. The musical nature sounds had faded, but the magic beneath her skin wanted out. It took all her willpower to not scratch until magic bled out. Nereida saw her pain, her plight.

  “I have you, love,” Nereida whispered. “And I am with you in this. Completely.” She dragged the body of the great cat to the altar, using her own knife to cut her hand. Nereida knelt in the dirt. “Wake, Dragon of the Earth. Your time to slumber is at an end. Please. Help end the war.” She cut herself, pcing her bleeding hand on the altar. The surge of magic stole Ael’s breath and she felt herself fall to the ground. She could feel it, stirring, rumbling. The ground shook, birds screeched and flew away. There was suddenly silence across the isnd, or so it felt. A strong presence settled around them, heavy, strong, and a scent like crushed flowers and mint filled the gde. Ael was dizzy, but had strength and presence of mind enough to make it to her wife. She held Nereida’s hand as the presence fled.

  They were alone.

  Ael only hoped they had done the right thing.

  FionaRobinsong