Chapter 11

He was in a void, falling, falling, falling. A numbness took hold. A finality.

And then he hit bottom.

Brynn expected a bone-crunching impact, but instead he landed with a damp squelch at the bottom of a muddy pit. He lay there momentarily, devoid of all thoughts, staring up past the opening of pit, looking at the eerie ceiling of Grimcairn.

Seleeku peeked her head over the edge. She wasn’t that far away—the pit wasn’t as deep as he had imagined. He had felt as if he had been falling for an eternity.

“Sometimes you should listen to my prophecies,” she said.

Brynn stood up slowly. He was covered in mud and the ground was slippery.

“What happened?” he asked. Although he wasn’t hurt, the fall had knocked the wind out of him. He was still feeling stunned.

“I think a sinkhole developed under the floor and you fell into it.”

That would explain the mud. An underground spring must have eaten away some of the soil under Grimcairn’s flooring. The flooring had finally given way when Brynn kicked the coffin. He could see pieces of stone tile scattered around the bottom of the pit.

Seleeku laid herself down near the edge of the hole and extended an arm towards him. “Grab my hand and I’ll help you up.”

If he stood on his tippy toes, he would just be able to reach her. But he slouched back down and sat firmly in the sludge instead.

“You go on,” he replied. “I’ll be fine.”

“What are you talking about?” Seleeku asked, confused. “You’re stuck in a muddy hole in what must be the most evil place in the world. I think we should leave.”

“Don’t worry about me, Seleeku. Save yourself.”

Seleeku shifted slightly and regarded him. “Brynn, I need your help. We let loose a foul spirit and now we have the responsibility stop it. I can’t do it by myself. You know more about spirits than anybody. You have to help me!”

“You think I know anything about spirits? I was trying to stop the Darkness and I did the exact opposite! I set it free! It’s my fault it’s out there! You don’t want my help. I just make things worse.”

“It’s my fault too, Brynn. I intend to do something to make it right. Please help me!” She stretched out her hand as far as it would go.

“I wish you luck, Seleeku. I’ll think stay right here.”

“Brynn, be reasonable. Come with me!”

“No.”

“Hrmph!” Seleeku grunted. She made a fist with her extended hand and smacked it against the muddy wall of the sinkhole in frustration.

Brynn sat and stared ahead at nothing, waiting for Seleeku to leave him alone. His stomach growled loudly. He realized belatedly that he never had a chance to eat breakfast.

Seleeku heard his stomach growl again and her expression changed. “Are you hungry? We could find something to eat from the garden and storage shed outside. That’s how Mattissa made us dinner. That was delicious wasn’t it? Maybe they’re out there waiting for us and she could make us another meal. But I don’t think I’ll be able to come back in here when I leave. So you’ll have to come with me if you want to eat.”

It was true—he was hungry. If Seleeku left, he could be stuck in this sinkhole until he died of starvation. If he went with her, he would at least have a chance at a meal.

A moment of silence crept awkwardly by. Brynn continued to avoid eye contact with Seleeku. His stomach growled a third time.

Finally, he said, “I’ll go with you Seleeku, but I won’t help you with the Darkness. I’m done with spirits. I’m not a druid anymore. If you want to fight the Darkness, that’s your choice.”

Seleeku opened her fist and held out her hand. “Let’s get something to eat,” she replied.

---

“If you were going to fight the Darkness, what would you do next?” Seleeku asked. They were standing in front of wooden door, ready to exit Grimcairn. Brynn had made a deal with the door’s spirit to let them in. Would it let them out?

“I’m not going to fight the Darkness,” he said firmly.

“I know. But if you were, what would you do?”

“I won’t do it,” Brynn repeated.

“Yes, I understand, but just suppose you were.”

“Don’t you have a prophecy to tell you what to do?” he snapped.

“That’s not funny, Brynn.”

He sighed. “Alright. I’d find a way to go back to Galdir and get into the Library. The Old Ones knew everything about the spirit world. I’d search their manuscripts. They must have some information about the Darkness.”

Seleeku looked surprised at his answer. “You’d go back even though you’re exiled? Wouldn’t that put your life in danger?”

“Maybe it would, but it doesn’t matter since I’m not going back.” Brynn went to grab the door handle, but paused. Something seemed odd, out of place.

“The wyverns should have left by now,” Seleeku said, misunderstanding the reason for his delay.

He peered at the door, but it looked the same as before, the same unusual wood grain and the same stubborn spirit. He couldn’t shake the feeling, though.

“Let’s go,” Seleeku said impatiently. She grabbed the handle herself. The door swung open effortlessly.

It took several moments for Brynn and Seleeku to process what they saw through the doorway. The low hill was gone. The surrounding field was gone. The Far Forest was gone.

They seemed to be on the side of a mountain. A broad valley lay below them, filled with golden fields of wheat rippling in the wind. A city sat on the edge of a river bend. It looked small from this distance, but the high walls and tall towers told of its true size. Flags flapped in the wind from the tops of the towers. Even though they were tiny and far away, Brynn recognized them.

Suddenly, there was a sharp bang from behind them. The door had slammed shut. How was it behind them? Brynn didn’t remember stepping outside. He turned around to take a look.

The door was gone. Grimcairn was gone.

He was instead staring at mountain meadow of low grasses intermixed with tiny wildflowers. Looking up, he could see the mountain’s top, full of ice and snow.

“Where are we?” Seleeku asked, mystified.

“I know where we are,” Brynn said sourly. He turned back and pointed at the city below. “That’s Galdir.”

“What? Did Grimcairn send us here?”

“I don’t think Grimcairn did this,” Brynn replied.

“If not Grimcairn, then who or what? … Oh, you think it was the door. But why? And how?”

“Who can say why? Maybe it heard me talking and thought it was doing us a favor. As to how, spirits aren’t bound by the rules of our reality. That’s why they’re dangerous.”

Brynn found a rocky outcrop and sat down, staring glumly at the valley below. It was midday. He could see farmers working in the fields. Ox carts were on the roads, carrying wheat to be threshed at various mills dotting the river. River boats ran up and down the waterway, which flowed down from the mountain, around Galdir, and then southwards, finally disappearing into the adjoining forest. He had been on one of those boats not so long ago, the first leg of his journey to Brightmyst.

Seleeku’s expression abruptly changed to one of barely contained panic. “I need to get back! Nessana …” She stepped over to where the door had been and frantically waved her arms at the now empty space. “Brynn, I need to go back! Tell the spirits I need to go back! Nessana!”

“I wish I could do something about it. I don’t want to be here either.” He looked up at her and noticed the alarm on her face. He paused before asking, “Are you and Nessana close? Is he in trouble? I’m sure they escaped the wyverns.”

“Of course we’re close! He’s my brother! He’s in danger!” She grabbed Brynn by the shoulders and shook him.

Brynn blinked. They were siblings. Of course. “What kind of danger is he in? Is it one of your—”

“Prophecies? Do you really want to know? I need to go back! I have to help him!”

Brynn looked at the spot on the mountain hill where Grimcairn should have been. All he could sense were the meadow flowers chattering away about whether the two-legs would eat them or not. Beyond that was the impassive, inscrutable, everlasting spirit of the mountain itself. Grimcairn, and its door, were nowhere to be found.

“I’m sorry, Seleeku, but you can’t go back. Not that way, at least.”

“How can I get back home?”

“There’s the Brokenhelm River down there in the valley. You could take that to the Emerald Bay. Then you’d have to find passage to Brightmyst. But traveling that way wouldn’t be safe. You might be able to hide your heritage for a little while, but as soon as they figured out that you’re an elf, they’d …” he shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t know what they’d do. As far as anyone else knows, elves are gone. It’s probably better it stays that way.”

Seleeku scowled. “You sound like you won’t come with me.”

“I don’t know, Seleeku. I don’t know.”

Seleeku’s face was grim. “Is there another way?”

“There’s a mountain pass that you could take to Coldbridge and then on to Timberton.” Brynn pointed off towards the northwest. “If you skirted the edges of the villages, you probably wouldn’t be noticed. That would put you at the eastern edge of the Far Forest. It would take you a month at a minimum. That’s assuming the weather holds. It’s late summer now and sometimes there are early storms. The pass could easily become blocked.”

“Brynn, look at me. I need your help. I need to get back home. I need another way. A faster way.”

Brynn looked into her eyes. They were full of fear and pain and desperation. He shifted his gaze back down to Galdir. All he wanted was to walk down there, go to his little room in the College, lay down on his small cot, and sleep. And to have a bath, too. And he wanted to eat. He was hungry.

“Those are the only two ways that I know,” he eventually said.

She looked crestfallen. “What am I supposed to do?” she asked, more to herself than to Brynn.

“I don’t know,” Brynn replied anyway. He stood up from his rocky seat. He started walking downwards, away from the meadow. He had seen a small path off to the right. It was probably a goat path, but any kind of path would do right now. “Good luck, Seleeku.”

“Where are you going?”

“Home.”

“Aren’t you exiled?”

“It takes a week, if not more, for messages to get from Brightmyst to Galdir. They don’t know yet that I’ve been exiled. That gives me some time to figure something out.”

“Fine. I’ll save my brother and stop the Darkness by myself.” The fear was gone from her eyes, replaced by a steely determination.

“I hope everything works out for you,” said Brynn.

There was silence while he scrambled down a ridge to reach the path. Then Seleeku called out to him, “I didn’t want to tell you, because I didn’t think you wanted to know, but the prophecy involves you too.”

Brynn stopped.

“No it doesn’t,” he said.

“It does.”

“You’re lying.”

“I can’t lie about my prophecies.”

Brynn stood motionless on the ridge. He didn’t think he could trust her, but he also didn’t think she would lie about something like that. He responded, “If you want me to help you, then prophecies are the last thing you should be mentioning.”

“I just … I just don’t think you can avoid it,” said Seleeku.

He frowned. “What does that mean?”

“My prophecies have a way of coming true. One way or another.”

Brynn grimaced. “You were right about one thing—I don’t want to know. Goodbye, Scout Seleeku.” Then he stepped onto the goat path and didn’t look back.