Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
“Lake! Don’t you dare! That’s my baby too.”
Oh no. Dave is back. I pop in the mouthpiece, push myself into the current, and start swimming.
I hope the window is there, because if it’s not, I’m pretty sure I’ll freeze to death. This wetsuit isn’t cutting it.
“Lake, get out of that water! You’ll freeze.”
Yet, if he were a brave man, he’d be jumping in the water to get me out. Instead, he just stands there watching. Coward. How the hell did I end up marrying him?
I struggle, kicking with my fins to center myself in the river, and then I push my face into the freezing water. I should’ve used a mask, but I figured it would just get in the way.
I breathe in and out; the tank is working at least. But when I look underwater, I only see shadows, faint outlines of stones. That’s about it. Please be there. I need to know what happens.
I’m almost to the boulder and dive down. Immediately, I feel something pulling me, like I’m being sucked down a drain. My body lights on fire, and a searing pain courses through my veins.
When I wake, it’s like the times before. I can’t move. My body is “settling,” as the Wall Men call it, part of the process of being picked apart by the bridge and melded back together, piece by piece.
The tank is still on me, and I’m underwater, tangled in a net.
I patiently wait to move a finger, then an arm. I fight the paralysis until I regain movement of my entire body and swim straight for the surface.
I spit out the mouthpiece and inhale the sulfur-scented air. The good news is that I made it to Monsterland, but I have no clue where I am exactly. It’s a massive room enclosing the rectangular pool. The walls and ceiling are made of stone. Slivers of sunlight pour through slits in the walls, where I can see the orange and red sky outside. There are several ledges around the pool with baskets tied to long sticks.
This must be where the water flows into Monsterland and out to the waterfall. They probably keep the nets around to catch any unlucky fish that come across the bridge. Free food.
I wiggle out of my tank and push it up on the ledge. I then pull myself up, grateful for the temperate air. I strip the suit from my shivering body, leaving me in my underwear and bra. It’s Monsterland. They’re not going to care. Most of the women here wear animal hide that barely covers a thing.
My hair dripping and my skin covered in goosebumps, I shiver my way down a long empty corridor with a towering ceiling. The air is still and eerily quiet.
Where are the Wall Men? Where are their people?
I keep going, taking turn after turn, hoping this passage will lead to one of the big halls or Alwar’s dwelling.
“Hello?”
I walk for over an hour, finding empty rooms and more vacant hallways. It’s quiet. Too quiet. Panic starts to overtake me. Like the version of home I just came from, this doesn’t feel right either.
“Hello! Alwar? Where are you?”
I finally reach one of those enormous stone paneled doors hooked up to several pullies. I push, and the thing swings open onto a courtyard bathed in red.
“Oh fuck.” That’s blood. Gallons of it.
I walk outside, my bare feet sticking to the blood-soaked ground, my eyes scanning for trolls, Skins, any danger.
Two War men are slouched over in the corner next to the barrier separating the courtyard from a steep drop-off. Both giants have gaping claw marks on their chests. They aren’t breathing.
A Flier did this. I turn to go back inside, but sitting up against the wall, just on the other side of the open door, is Bard clutching his bleeding neck. He’s huge. Just as big as Alwar.
“Bard?” I run over. There’s blood coming from his mouth and ears. “Ohmygod. Tell me what to do. Tell me how to help you.” How is he alive again? How is he a giant? “Bard, where’s Alwar?”
“Alwar?” He coughs.
“Yes. He’ll know what to do.”
Bard’s bloodshot eyes flutter open. “What are you doing here?”
“Something’s not right back home. I changed things or made a mistake, or I don’t know.” I came to see Alwar and figure it out. I put my hands around Bard’s finger and squeeze. “Please tell me what to do, how to save you?”
“There is no saving me, First woman. Now go find shelter with the children in the keep. And seal that door before the trolls get here. They are already halfway up the stairs.”
First woman? “You don’t remember me?”
“Why would I?”
Shit. So I was right; Bard and I never meet. That’s why I marry Dave. “Bard, I need to find Alwar. Where is he?”