Escape to the Sea (Tangled Hearts #1)

Chapter 22 The Everbright Curtain

Ephraim

Desire stops, standing at the crest of the next hill. Like before, the curtain eludes us, playing games as our time runs out. Behind me, Atrea and Tommy are conferring about something, as if they are truly concerned about my wellbeing. To them I am merely a means to an end, no matter…

No matter how much I thoroughly enjoyed myself last night. How much I longed for more, perhaps to do so again this morning. Why not, if the opportunity presented itself? This whole trip has felt like one long dream.

Now I’m waking up to reality, far worse than any nightmare.

Desire turns to me, their appearance shifting to one of purple skin and billowing dark blue hair. I force myself to smile at them instead of turning away.

“This is a fruitless effort,” Desire says, as Tommy and Atrea are in earshot. “It runs from us.”

“This is what it did yesterday too,” I add, shaking my head. “Baker says that I was moving towards it for an hour and it grew no closer.”

Desire sighs, running a hand over their forehead. “We wish you would have said as much this morning.”

“Why would we tell you? Shouldn’t you know?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest. “This morning, you made it sound like you had all the answers. What changed?”

Desire makes that short, snappish noise again, their eyes changing colors with their irritation. “We told you, we’ve conducted many experiments, but not all of them were fruitful. This does present us with a new hypothesis, however. We do not believe the wall can be reached by anyone but you, Young Everbright. If we approach, then it sprints forwards, like a hare chased by a fox. Perhaps if you proceed alone, it will stop trying to run.”

“You mean, go by myself?” I frown. It sounds dangerous, but if this can offer an alternative to escaping the Wyrd Sea and provide insights into what my mother was doing here, then—

“Fuck no.”

I turn to Tommy, who stares at the rest of us, just as confused, then blinks in realization that he’s the one who said it. The irrational side of me gets a flutter of pleasure that he’s sticking up for me, but then I remember how I’m fun.

Desire looks at Tommy with a cross between amusement and annoyance. “No?”

Tommy’s gaze hardens, his form suddenly taller and broader, as if he takes up more space than he did before, despite only shifting his posture. The elf is so curious; I can’t figure him out. It’s clear he’s so much more than some thug from the Trunk…

He snaps at Desire in rapid-fire Kastii that Desire returns in kind. Being excluded from a conversation isn’t going to get us anywhere. I look back at the curtain, the hum from before calling me. I can distinguish it now from the flowers—it’s resonant and familiar somehow.

“I know it sounds mad, but I’m drawn to it,” I say, looking back at the group. “Maybe if I get closer…”

“Yes, yes!” Desire chitters. “You are Everbright, we feel it. Perhaps you must approach by yourself.”

Atrea’s gaze hardens on Desire. Tommy stares at me, his bright red eyes pleading. “Cutie, we need to go. Please, come.”

Does he, or Atrea, not understand that I am doing this for them ? That I alone have the power to get us out of here after I brought us in? They should be working with me, trying to figure this out with me, together. Instead, it seems, I am yet again dragging them along.

I stalk towards Tomlyn, feeling colder and more distant from him than this entire trip, my hands curled into fists.

The elf leans back on his heels, hands clasped behind his back. A clearly practiced and familiar posture. “Sea-walking alone is dangerous,” he says. “This is not good. I don’t like.”

I can’t help my mirthless laugh. “But we’re having fun, aren’t we? You and Atrea, or whatever her real name is? Having fun with me? Why bother to start caring now?”

“You’re too smart for this,” Atrea snaps. “We need to try to figure a way out!”

I look down at the necklace as the second-to-last leaf starts to dim. I school my face as I dismiss her with a wave of my hand. “Has it not crossed your mind that this might be a way out? Perhaps you’re not smart enough for this. Don’t worry, I will find us a way out. Now, stay there.”

With that, I turn on my heel and steel myself as I start walking to the curtain. As I walk alone, the curtain doesn’t move. As I get closer, the hum beckons me in, the connection stronger, but not overpowering.

The curtain itself is massive, overwhelming, up close and is more of a magical barrier, ethereal but tangible. Curiously, when I press my hand against it, it’s not hard. Rather, it’s malleable, like I could mold it the way a potter molds clay. I push more intently, the barrier thick and opaque, not too cold but not warm either.

As I do, the light extends towards me, caressing my skin, the hum like a sweet lullaby. Behind me, I hear Desire, but their words are too far away. Everything feels far away, except for the curtain.

The hum gets louder, like an orchestra swelling as the warm light seeps into my skin. I’ve never been able to use magic—I wasn’t born with the innate gift, nor did I study it, but I wonder if this is what having magic is like. It’s tingling and… right.

The longer I stand there, absorbing the golden aura of the curtain, the less opaque it becomes. In front of me, a figure starts to take form, though I can’t make out if it’s a man or a woman, but I think they might be human.

Next to me, out of the curtain, two soldiers appear in full plate armor. But their bodies are… wrong. Their heads seem like skulls dipped in precious metals, embedded with brilliant jewels, and carved with intricate patterns. They turn to me, inclining their heads in an alien manner. I return the gesture, but their breastplates… the insignia. I know that insignia from somewhere, but where?

“Cutie, MOVE!”

Tomlyn comes sprinting across the meadow, jagerstocks raised. To my left, an arrow pierces the neck of one of the guards.

“No!” I cry out. They don’t know! They don’t understand!

But it’s too late. The soothing hum cuts mid-melody, discordant and the flowers around me shriek as the curtain rips back, away from me. Next to me, the guard shudders, their body going slack then pulling itself back up, neck tilted, arms awkwardly hung, like a puppet whose strings are tangled.

“It went right through!” Atrea calls, bounding towards us.

It’s true. The arrow is on the ground, a blue flower the color of her hair pierced right through the center. There’s a yellow and red flower next to it making a sound that I can only imagine to be weeping.

Gods, weeping flowers. What else is here in the Wyrd Sea?

I’m shaken from my daze as Tomlyn swings the jagerstocks down on the guard, cutting clean through them with no effect. But then the guard raises their sword and cleaves down.

Tommy dodges back as the blades strike the ground where he was standing, the ground sizzling with the scorching fire of the blade.

“Fuck! Babe!”

“I see! You, idiot, get over here !” Atrea screams at me.

They don’t understand. I feel these guards. They’re mine. We’re connected, even though the sensation is fraying—I can sense them. I approach the second guard as they start towards Atrea, moving faster than I would think one could in full plate armor.

“Please, listen, don’t hurt them! They didn’t know!”

I try to put my hand on their shoulder, but it phases through completely, and the guard doesn’t turn to me either. They stalk towards Atrea with singular intent. She draws another arrow, but I’m standing behind them; her eyes widen and she quickly holsters her bow as she dodges and pulls out her dagger. “To your karadin! ”

Tommy steps backwards and disappears into his shadow, reappearing next to Atrea at her back. The guards turn towards them.

“Wait!” I cry, stepping in its path.

They walk right through me.

I whirl around, staring in horror as they close on Atrea and Tommy. The blade comes down again and Tommy blocks it with his combined jagerstocks, while Atrea rolls out of the way of the other sword. Tommy hurls one of the bulbed traps at the guards and it sets off, emitting a black mist that floats through it. Atrea slashes at the second guard’s legs to no avail before Tommy grabs her by the waist and dives back into the void.

They reappear up on the hill, not far from where Desire is standing.

Desire, who is looking on with an all too eager grin. Fury rises in me, and I stalk over to them, pointing at the guards as they close in on Tommy and Atrea again.

“You knew! You knew about the guards!”

Desire makes an open, disarming gesture with their four arms. “We have seen them on a few occasions… sometimes with your mother.”

“That is enough! You will help them!”

Desire’s form seems to grow larger, their form distorting and twisting until it’s an odd mix of long sandy brown hair and the form of an elven woman. “We did as we said we would. We brought you to the curtain, Young Everbright. Alas, your time here is running out.”

They point a finger at the last remaining leaf. Behind me, Tommy lets out a howl and dives again, this time Atrea gasping and heaving for breath as they resurface, her eyes unfocused.

“Oh, the mother’s domain is not a friendly place, don’t you know? Eyes and hands in the darkness. I wonder how much longer he can do that before they find him,” Desire muses, as though pondering the weather.

Desperation seizes me. At this rate they’ll be killed, or, perhaps worse, we’ll be stuck in the Wyrd Sea, or the endless void.

“I’ll make the deal! The memory of the incantation, which I retain indefinitely, and additional information about my mother and what she was doing in the Wyrd Sea!”

Desire’s form shifts, solidifies to an off-version of my mother, Braelynn. Her golden hair is too gold and long, her figure exaggerated, but it’s Desire’s too-wide grin that throws off the entire appearance the most. My instincts scream at me to run, to go anywhere else, but there is nowhere to go, and we are out of time.

“I will give those things to you… in exchange for your true name, Clever One.”

“No!” Atrea screams, but I can’t tell if it’s because of the fight or me.

“I’ll do it,” I say firmly and hold out my hand.

Desire clasps it, but their fingers have grown buglike, and segmented, the spindly points digging into my skin. “Your name, Young Everbright, first.”

There’s another frustrated scream behind me, but I straighten my shoulders and look right into Desire’s eyes, which split from two to three, then four. “My name is Ephraim Echtarch of the Bronze Order, Prince of Vinitore, Primary in Wait for the Branch Echtarch, Sheath of Falling Leaves, of the Aurelian Empire.”

“ Ephraim ,” Desire says. “Know and See.”

My vision goes white, but in my mind’s eye, my mother grasping the necklace. There’s someone next to her. but the vision is narrowed solely on her. Her low, melodic voice fills my ears as she speaks.

“The tide recedes, out of the Sea, chart the path Home.”

I am slammed back into consciousness as Desire pulls me close, “Tick tock. We’ll meet again, Ephraim Echtarch . Go. Now.”

I do. I sprint towards Atrea and Tomlyn, run through a guard and hurl myself onto them, reciting the incantation as the magic of the necklace starts to fade, and the world spins away.