The Brothers Locke, page 21
The further out they got, the darker it became around them. The glowing motes of light that illuminated the rest of the cavern were not here, and the growing darkness began to unnerve a few of the teens, Kale most of all. He couldn’t see the monster’s tentacles now, and that was more frightening — not knowing where it was — than seeing it.
“I’d like to say that it gave up, but I doubt it,” he whispered to everyone else in the boat.
“No, it’s still there,” Sharp signed to his brothers. “I can see it move under water. It’s not close, but it’s still chasing us.”
“What did he say?” Kale asked Mouth.
“He said you’re right. We have to keep moving. Paddle as hard as you can. I know our arms are tired, but we can’t slow down. I don’t want to lose Dana, but I don’t want that thing catching up with us either.”
Despite the pain in their arms, the teens kept paddling, and the boat continued to accelerate across the lake. Kale was not cut out for this. Driving a truck was easy; you just pushed down on the gas pedal and turned the wheel. Rowing required physical exertion, and he was just about at his limit. He looked back one last time for the lake monster.
“I think it’s gone,” Kale said. “Sharp, can you see anything?”
Sharp turned back and scanned the water behind them. He wanted to make sure nothing was there, so he looked everywhere he could, but the creature had either dived deep down into the depths of the lake or managed to conceal itself even from his vision.
“No, I don’t,” he signed to Mouth, who interpreted for the others. “It doesn’t mean it’s gone, though. We should keep our eyes open.”
They didn’t let up on their paddling, only slowing a bit because of how tired Kale and Echo had gotten from the repetitive motion. Both needed a rest while Mouth and Sharp, the strongest of the five teens, continued to row the boat onward.
It was terribly dark there. Just a few glimmers of light gave any sense of location. A ripple of water, a speck of light outlining the rocky walls or stalactites above, but besides these few moments, there was little else but blackness. Besides the deep gulp and trailing tinkle of water that came from the oars repeating their task, it was quiet. It was the kind of silence that made them anxious.
After nearly an hour of travel, Sharp began to notice his eyesight was losing some of its enhancements. He strained in the darkness. Without lighted sources for reference, his enhanced vision would deteriorate quickly.
His worries went unfounded because up ahead something was flickering like a spark trying desperately to ignite a fire. He didn’t know what it was, but the possibility that they had finally caught up to Dana and her captors infused him with another burst of energy. He paddled harder, so much so that the other teens took notice.
“What’s gotten into him?” asked Jocelyn.
“Sharp, what’s going on?” Echo asked.
He simply pointed ahead. Mouth followed his finger but saw nothing in the darkness. The water was unsettled; splashes could be heard echoing off the walls ahead where the water met its borders. Someone or something had been here recently.
“You think it’s them, Sharp? Can you see them?” Mouth asked.
“I think. Not sure,” Sharp signed to his brother. “But I want to find out.”
***
“There’s our destination,” Bando said as the darkness of the cave began to clear.
The glowing motes had gathered up ahead like a cluster of fireflies, swirling in a misty cloud that hovered just above the surface of the lake. Still a few hundred yards away, it would take a bit of time to reach their goal as slow as their boat was moving. Mongrel’s mass was proving a hindrance, but now that the end was in sight, Bando didn’t mind.
“What is that?” Dana asked.
“Not sure, but from what I can tell, it’s in the same shape as the Hanging Trees, just made out of clusters of these little firefly lights. Not natural, magical. If it’s magical, that means we’re close to the Spire,” Bando explained his logic.
“Yes, that must be it,” Von Strauss agreed.
“Can they go faster?” Bando asked, hoping that Von Strauss knew some way of getting more effort out of the Bascelics.
“I doubt it. They need time to recover from paddling for so long. They are not used to such work. They were created for combat, not rowing boats.”
There was no reason to protest. Their speed would have to do. It was more of an annoying inconvenience than anything else. With their destination apparently close, Bando’s anticipation grew with every inch the boat crept towards the spectacle of light. But there was something else there, something he hadn’t seen when the lights appeared in the darkness. There was a silver sparkle between them.
“Is that a waterfall?” Von Strauss said.
They were a few dozen yards closer now and, indeed, there was a waterfall. Between the swirling columns of glowing motes was a steady stream of rushing water that poured down from an unseen source high above. The strangest aspect of this waterfall was not only that it came from seemingly out of nowhere, but when it made contact with the surface of the lake there was no splash, no ripple, no disturbance at all. It merely flowed right through as if the lake did not exist.
A low growl came from Mongrel that diverted Von Strauss and Bando from the spectacle that was ahead of them. The monster’s attention was instead behind the boat at the darkness of the cave.
Von Strauss went to the monster and tried to communicate. Limited in what it could say, Mongrel simply continued to grunt, suggesting that something was behind them. While Von Strauss was confused, Bando was not.
“It’s them,” he guessed. “They’re catching up. Von Strauss, get your creatures to work faster!”
Shouting at the Bascelics in a language only he and they could understand, Von Strauss did his best to motivate the winged oarsmen to work harder. It was futile since they were already at the limits of what their muscles could do. They would simply not be able to pull the boat to a higher speed with the amount of weight in it. Bando moved one of the creatures aside and decided to paddle himself, but it made little difference. He soon realized just how Herculean a task it was, even with his considerable size and strength.
“Is that them?” Kale said as he squinted to see ahead.
“It is,” Echo said. “It’s Dana!”
“And a boat load of goons,” Mouth added.
“Alright, let's do this,” Echo finished as he grabbed an oar and, along with his brothers and Jocelyn — Kale more or less allowed her to take the last oar without protest — they moved their small boat, which was already going at a tremendous speed, onwards to their goal.
“How are they going so fast?” Von Strauss puzzled.
“It doesn’t matter,” Bando grunted, the strain of paddling showing on his face.
“They’re going to catch up.”
“Then take over and help paddle. Don’t worry about the girl. Mongrel has hold of her. She won’t get away.”
Von Strauss debated internally if he wanted to paddle and decided not to. He told himself he wanted to be prepared in case the other boat got too close. In truth, he simply didn’t want to.
They were just fifty yards away from the waterfall. What would happen once they reached it was anyone’s guess, but at this point, that would have to be a concern for later. They could not let Dana’s friends catch up. They only could keep Dana passive because there really was no means for her to escape even if she did break free of Mongrel’s grip. With another boat, her options improved.
“We’re getting there! Dana, we’re coming!” Kale shouted.
He bounced up and down in the boat like an overenthusiastic cheerleader. The others paid him no mind since their focus was on closing the distance between them and the other boat. They also could see that they were moving much faster than Bando’s boat, and that only increased their drive.
The teens wouldn’t have to fight. They just needed to get close enough for Dana to get off of that boat and get into theirs. Given how slow Bando’s boat was moving, it wouldn’t take much effort for them to outrun the other craft. It was a matter of distance now. They could only hope that Von Strauss and Bando would not shoot at them for fear of how Dana would react or hitting her accidentally.
“I should have known,” groaned Kale as he looked off to the left. “It’s never easy. Look out!”
The brothers had no idea what he was going on about until the one-eyed creature from before burst through the surface of the lake, far enough away that it didn’t capsize them but close enough that the waves rocked them off course.
Its appendages shot out in all directions, desperately trying to get a grip on either raft. This was the closest they had been to the creature that clearly had been stealthily lurking this entire time, tracking them all the way to this waterfall gate. It didn’t distinguish between the teens — whom The Ostiary sent it after — or the boat that had paid the price in gold to ferry the waters. It was angry, and everything would be destroyed if it had its way.
“Turn, turn, turn!” Mouth shouted.
The teens shifted to the left, leaning their bodies as they paddled as to avoid one of the giant tentacles that smashed into the water. Their speed allowed them to outmaneuver the sea creature. It did take them far away from Bando’s boat, however, and they would have to circle back around.
“Forget the sea creature. Let’s just get to the waterfall,” Bando said.
“It’s looking at us, Bando,” Von Strauss said, his voice cracking with panic. “It is too big to kill with what we have onboard.”
As if it heard them and was offended, the lake monster shifted its attention away from the teens and towards the villains and their prisoner. The domed head sunk down halfway into the water so it could move without the friction of breaking the lake’s surface. Its massive eye focused on them, bloodshot and squinting. Without warning, it shot two of its arms out from under the water’s surface, snagging the much slower boat and keeping it from going any farther.
They were just a few paddle strokes from the waterfall.
“Von Strauss! Shoot that thing!” Bando yelled.
The Bascelics began to panic and dropped their oars. They were now moving backward towards the lake monster, who was also compromising the integrity of the boat with its strength. Parts of the boat were splintering under the strain. If they took on water, they’d sink and be at the mercy of this animal.
Von Strauss fired several times at the monster, but his shots either missed their mark or had no effect at all except to earn a bubbling underwater growl. He reloaded his weapon and continued firing, hoping that the creature would loosen its grip.
Mongrel had reached its limit with the lake monster. It released its grip on Dana and pushed her forward into the grasp of the Bascelics. It roared at the lake monster, whose eye focused evilly on its rival. Without hesitation, Mongrel grabbed the attached tentacles, ripped them clean from the side of the boat and, with a bellowing roar, pulled with all of its strength, ripping the tentacles from the beast itself.
It held the quivering pieces of calamari between its giant mitts and then flung them into the lake with a huff of disgust. The lake monster let loose a stream of pained cries mixed with ferocious growls. Despite all this, it was retreating. Mongrel had wounded it badly, and there was no sense in going after this tiny boat any longer.
“Well then, it seems Dr. Psi’s work came in handy after all,” Bando commented as he continued to paddle the boat towards the waterfall, now free of any obstacles.
A wave of energy was coming from the waterfall. The droplets that were coming off of the stream were subject to a different type of gravity and physics that sent them darting in different directions. As the boat passed into the stream, Dana noticed a few spheres of liquid hovering over her head, as if they were observing her, before floating effortlessly down into the lake. In a matter of seconds, the boat passed through the veil of water, and much like the lake, their contact with the waterfall didn’t disturb its flow nor did it drench them. They simply passed through this membrane and into another reality altogether, gone within a few strokes of a paddle.
“They went through,” Mouth told the other teens.
“Where is that thing?” Echo asked. “I can hear it howling under the water, but the sound is bouncing around so much I can’t tell where it is.”
“We can’t worry about that. I just hope it’s wounded enough that it’ll think twice before coming after us again. Let’s get to that waterfall,” said Mouth.
Being so far off course from where the waterfall was, it took a few seconds for them to fight against the waves that had been made from the lake monster. Once they had corrected their path, it was full speed towards the waterfall. Sharp continued to look for the monster, but it had gone into hiding again, hopefully for the last time.
“Has anyone wondered what we’re going to do once we get through this?” asked Kale.
“Not now, Kale,” Echo answered.
“We’re almost there!” Jocelyn called out.
The firefly lights surrounding the waterfall became extremely active all of a sudden. They behaved like a flock of birds suddenly sensing a predator, scattering in all directions. It changed the uniform four columns that surrounded the waterfall into a mass of particles, each zigging and zagging in their own directions.
It seemed the one-eyed monster was not done.
“Just keep going!” Mouth shouted as the water became disturbed.
A low rumble could be heard coming from deep beneath the lake’s surface.
“It’s coming back,” Echo said.
The rumbling continued to grow as the motes around the waterfall grew more erratic. The waterfall itself remained unchanged.
“Just keep going!” Mouth repeated.
One tentacle erupted from beneath the surface just off to the right of the waterfall.
“Almost there. Almost there,” Kale kept repeating to himself.
They were just a few more yards from their goal. A few more strokes of the oars, a bit more muscle to push them forward.
“We’re gonna make it,” Jocelyn said.
“Just keep going!” Mouth repeated one last time as they closed in on the portal.
Without warning, the lake monster sprang the entirety of its body out of the water, eclipsing everything that the teens could see and sending every glowing mote of light scattering throughout the cavern. They marveled at the sheer size of the cloying monstrosity before its body crashed back into the lake.
As if someone had flipped a switch, everything went dark.
***
Bando’s boat emerged on the other side of the waterfall completely dry, gliding gently down a stream. On the shoreline was an entrance that looked all too familiar: four trees arching downward with a dirt path roughly carved out between them.
“Let's get a move on, yes?” Von Strauss said as he motioned for the Bascelics to anchor the boat on the shore.
Dana sat in the boat looking back at the waterfall, which, on this side, looked completely normal. A solid wall of rock and stone provided the backdrop for this secluded area in the north, but unlike the snowfields they had traveled before, this place was serene and full of lush greenery. The trees here were tall evergreens, not the spindly twigs of the cave or the dying bark of the winter wasteland. A breeze flowed through the pines, carrying their scent on its gentle air stream, rustling the lush foliage and brightly colored flowers that carpeted the ground.
As the Bascelics secured the boat, Von Strauss and Bando surveyed the area for any possible threats. After finding nothing but vegetation, they ordered the Bascelics and Mongrel to follow them along the path ahead.
Perhaps it was inevitable, Dana thought, that her life’s story would end here. She had run from this for so many years and found nothing but misery every time someone discovered her true nature. An outcast and an outsider, there was little for her to hold on to in this world except for her friends, and those were few and far between. There wouldn’t be many who would miss her in the Dea, but the ones that would — a group of teenagers and a salty mercenary who were risking their lives to keep her from this ending — were worth more than her fear. They had tried their best. All she could do now was get this over with. Ending this game and hoping her friends were far enough away from here was the best thing she could hope for at this point. Sure, she could fight, she could argue, but Bando and his crew would not be denied, and she didn’t have the strength to outmatch her captors.
“Can I ask for one thing?” she said in an uncommonly soft tone.
“What is it now?” Von Strauss said.
“Give me a moment, right here.”
Von Strauss looked to Bando who nodded in agreement. What could she possibly do at this point? Whatever this was, even if it was some sort of ill-conceived attempt at escape, they could handle it.
Dana knelt down in the soft mud and, with her index finger, began to draw. Bando and Von Strauss stood over her shoulder watching every mark she made. When she was done, Dana stood tall, inhaled deeply, and with one final breath, marched forward along the path.
Von Strauss and Bando observed the marks she made in the mud. Von Strauss smirked while Bando didn’t react at all, his face remaining a mask of calm. He took one final look at the marks and then followed the others along the pathway ahead.
As they cleared the shoreline, Dana’s message settled in the wet ground as a warning to her friends should they make it this far:
GO HOME
***
The remains of a boat pushed its way through the waterfall, worse for wear but still mostly intact, carrying its five passengers who felt just as rough.
Kale had passed out from fear, and Jocelyn was doing her best to revive him. The brothers continued to ease the boat, which was now taking on water from the holes that had been punched in its side, towards the shoreline. With a shout, Kale woke up and started babbling about an octopus and tentacles.
