Chapter 11 (Nyght)

                                    

                                          
11
                          
Nyght 
                          
Myra’s laughter echoed circled me as we ran through the fields of lavender. The sun shined down on us. Her scarlet hair danced around her. Myra turned to me a smile on her dark lips. My bare feet sank into the soft dirt as I ran to her. 
                          
The green of our tree came into view. Had it only been an hour since I found her there? I wrapped my arms around her waist, her emerald eyes met mine they sparkled with mischief. I moved in to kiss her, Myra’s leg swept across mine. 
                          
I stare up at the blue sky, the weight of Myra small frame on my chest. She shook with laughter. Her scarlet hair came into view above me, our eyes meet. She moved closer to me, our lips so close I could smell honey on her lips. 
                          
Someone kicked my foot. “Nyght, wake up.” Luka’s voice broke my memory. 
                          
It had been almost a week since I had left Myra, again, and Luka still hadn’t told me where we are going. I had planned to tell him that it was time to go home. My time with Myra had reminded me of that. But Luka suggested it first. “We need to go home, but I need to get one thing first. It’s on the way.” That was all he would tell me.
                          
I pushed my hair from my face. “Are you going to tell me where we are going today?”
                          
He shrugged.  “The strongest point of the river, Rama, there is a cave. This cave glowed with an otherworldly blue-green even in midday. All who enter this cave come back changed… if they come back at all.”
                          
I knew the cave. What he should have said all that entered either died or going insane. “Have you lost your mind?” 
                          
“You don’t need to come,” Luka said with a yawn. “I can do this alone.”
                          
I had promised Myra I would bring him back in one piece. There was no way I let him do this alone. I shouldn’t let him do it at all. 
                          
“I’ll go,” I said with resolve. 
                          
He looked at me with green eyes that almost matched Myra’s. “Promise me to do as I say. If I bring you back all wobbly in the head my sister will kill me.” 
                          
Your sister will kill me if you come back the same and when did he gain so much knowledge about a place he had never been? Luka had been acting weirder then usually. This why I didn’t confront him about Myra being in Deidre when I first saw him or hit him.
                          
“Fine, ” I said. 
                          
                                                                        ***
                          
It didn’t take us long to find the cave. The glow could be seen from a distance. The cave really was quite beautiful once inside. The wall sparkled in the colors of a rainbow. Pools of brightly colored water made up much of the floor. 
                          
He pointed to one of the pools. “Don’t touch the waters, they are poison. Stay on the dirt.” 
                          
I had no intention to do so. Although beautiful, there was something wrong with this place and it had nothing to do with the water. Something I couldn’t explain, but rather felt, and I didn’t like it. Why was Luka taking us here? We walked in a zigzag through a maze of multi shaped and colored pools, until we stopped at the west wall of the cave. 
                          
“So, how do you know about this place?” I asked “Did you have a vision or something?”
                          
Luka shrugged. He moved his hand down the wall. There was something etched into the stone. He pressed down on a triangle in the center of a sun. A low rumble moved through the cave. I tried to turn around to see what was making the noise, but my body would not move. Luka just stood there, staring at the wall.
                          
I tried to call out to him, but my mouth wouldn’t open. The rumble slowed to a slight tremor and then stopped.  Luka turned around and I grabbed his arm.
                          
Through gritted teeth I was able to ask. “Luka, what’s going on?” 
                          
“I told you, you didn’t need to come.” He yanked his arm from my grasp.
                          
The floor moved under my feet, so I faced the room. The puddles that had been spread across the floor before Luka touched the wall had formed into a pyramid.  They towered above inches from the ceiling of the cave.  
                          
Luka stood at the bottom of the stacked pools. Biting his lower lip, he said. “Once I get what I came for the room will go back to it was before” he yelled. He reached up with trembling hands and grabbed onto the rock ledge pulling himself up the pyramid. Pebbles tumbled down when his feet hit the thin edge of a pool. 
                          
I watched Luka climb with the same skill he used to climb the castle walls in Evigheden. It took Luka little time to reach the top. He turned to me color drained from his face. Had he touched the waters? I tried to call out, but I was still bound by an invisible force.
                          
He turned back to the pool, rubbing the back of his neck and staring down into the pool. Luka took a deep breath and mumbled what looked like a silent prayer, then dove into the water. 
                          
 My voice broke through its bound. “LUKA,” I screamed.
                          
A rumble started again. The pools on the bottom shot out across the dirt floor, filling the room with dust, then the next row. By the time the third row came down, the air was full of dirt. I didn’t see what was happening. But when it cleared the room was back the way it had started and I was able to move.
                          
Luka lay in a heap in the center of the room. I moved through the room, avoiding an unexpected bath in poison. What had Luka been thinking? Why would he jump? My boot splashed in a steaming orange puddle next to Luka motionless hand.
                          
He wasn’t breathing. Please don’t be dead. I moved in close. Luka shot up, looked around the room and groaned. “Nyght.” He coughed, then passed out.   
                          
“Lucky jerk,” I grumbled.