The Oak Hotel - Watty Awards 2013 Finalist

Chapter Forty-four - Ydra

Chapter Forty-four

Ydra

Sapana moved lithely, her strides in such perfect cadence it seemed as if she were floating. Kayleigh was, in fact, floating, which left Lincoln to keep up with his own unsure steps. They crossed the surrounding Academy property, made their way through the periphery of Castle Rock town proper until reaching the bare, desert floor.

The hill upon which the large, flat rock sat rose steeply by the time they reached it. Sapana, in her ostensible trance, magically avoided every stone and hole Lincoln managed to stumble upon. The random juniper and ponderosa pine cast long, jittery shadows.

As they made their way upward, the explosive radiance made Lincoln nauseous. He felt as if he were in the sawol cloud again, unable to gauge where his next footfall would land. When Sapana reached the crest of the rock, she fell to her knees and stared at the vision before her.

Kayleigh and Lincoln paused, then moved slowly past her toward… what? The only thing Lincoln could compare it to was the rainbow ribbon of the de’Malange sawol, though it was more feeling than appearance.

Kayleigh stopped a few feet ahead of him when she reached the point of the silent, prismatic eruption. It was still odd to hear only the soft sound of wind moving past them.

Kneeling beside his dearest friend, Lincoln stared at her face and was finally able to speak:

“What is it?”

Ydra, her words came softly to his mind. It is the Ydra, but I don’t really know what that means.

The moment she spoke its name, the luminosity waned and the rotation slowed. Within seconds, they stared down into a shallow, blackened crater at what appeared to be a multifaceted crystal. Dimmer, though by no means less humbling, the light inside it pulsed like a living creature.

Lincoln, unable to control himself, reached down into the bowl-like depression. Kayleigh flinched, reached out to stop him, then hesitated when she saw his hand pass through the crystal. It was, she thought with a shudder, exactly the way my finger went through the button under the Lost Boardwalk. She wanted to grab Lincoln, pull him away, keep him from making the awful choice of giving up his physical body. But there was no owl this time to ask the question.

She noticed that he was staring at her, eyes wide, and knew exactly what he was thinking. They twisted around and saw Sapana still on her knees, head down as if in prayer.

“Well,” Kayleigh whispered, “There’s only one way to find out.”

Expecting heat, there was only an icy chill as her hand neared the shifting, phasing gem. She anticipated the same result as Lincoln, but her index finger pressed firmly against a curve of facets. Without sound or fanfare, there was only a dim, blue flash of light.

The effect upon Kayleigh, however, was immediate and violent: her mind expanded exponentially as if it were a physical entity and the entire desert was nothing more than a child’s shadow box project for school. There was no confinement, only a depthless access to everything. And then vertigo set in… and panic.

With velocity, she was pulled back beside Lincoln, her hands raised before her eyes. Lincoln wrapped his own hands around them, shaking.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“You started to disappear,” he said. “You were… part of the light.”

“It felt wonderful,” she said softly, lacing her fingers around Lincoln’s. “But kind of scary, too.”