Josephine paced before half a dozen openings in the cave wall. She paused in front of one tunnel and considered a couple of the others. The one before us was rough-hewn with tool marks of having been carved from the mountain. One of the other tunnels had wooden supports. A third had bricked walls.
“Where do these go? To different places?”
Josephine nodded. “There are many places in the Dreamlands. We want to stay in the west.”
I refused to ask the question she wanted me to ask. I would not be distracted from our session. I needed to help her in the way I hadn’t been able to help Malachi. “Toward the Red House?”
“Yes.”
“Which one takes us there?”
Josephine looked between the three tunnels, her face a mask of confusion. “Things have changed.”
I stood close behind her. “You can do this. You know this place. Go with your instinct.”
“What if I get it wrong?” She leaned back to me.
I let her shoulder touch mine, taking comfort as much as giving it. “Then we will deal with it together. Choose. Time is of the essence.”
Josephine glanced at me out of the corner of her eye as I cast her words at her. She pointed to the rough-hewn tunnel. “That one.”
I stepped around her and into the tunnel. “Let’s go.” I gestured for her to walk alongside me.
Josephine hesitated then steeled herself. With a raised chin, she stepped to my side. We walked in. The tunnel, dim, was wide enough for three people to walk abreast. The light neither waxed nor waned. All around us, the rock of the mountain pressed in. I looked back. Darkness swallowed the entrance of the cavern. It was as if we traveled in a bubble of light. I counted fifty steps before casting my opening questions.
“Who is the Black Wind?”
Josephine took a breath. “One of the Outer Gods. He has another name. We do not speak it. If we do, he might hear. He is one of the gods who interacts with humans.” She spoke like a child reciting a lesson.
“And his minions? Are they demons?” I suppressed a shudder at the memory of those men with horns and hooves.
“I do not know. They work for him. They hunt for him. I believe that is their purpose.”
“They hunt you now?” Josephine nodded. Her hand sought mine and clasped it for comfort. I squeezed, encouraging her. “Why?”
“I…” Josephine shook her head. “I am special.”
I waited for her to continue. She didn’t.
We walked in silence, our steps eating ground. It felt as if we were walking a spiral even though the way was straight and narrow. I smelled the faintest breath of fresh air. The tunnel wasn’t going to be as long as I thought it would be. “They called you the Bride.” Josephine pulled away from me, walking faster. I let her go. I walked a couple steps behind, watching her stiff posture and fear. “Why?”
“I do not want to talk about that.” She continued to march ahead. “I cannot. I have another duty. I must focus on it.”
Her first duty, the protection of something within her that was killing her slowly. She was correct. We needed to focus on that for the moment. “Yes. You have a point. We can revisit the Black Wind another day. We will do so, soon,” I promised, wondering if her fear strengthened her will enough to influence my mind. I shook my head. I could not, would not, think like that.
I shifted back to our previous conversations and the point we broke through. “Do you remember what it was you weren’t supposed to know?”
“I read the book.” Josephine’s voice was a whisper almost lost to our fast steps.
The tunnel wound in a downward direction. “You were not supposed to read the book.”
“No.”
There were two ways I could approach this. Only one of them dug into Josephine’s motivations. “Why did you read it?” The light grew, tinted red. I could see the opening.
Shadows encroached around us, squeezing us until it was only possible to walk one behind the other. Even as the light brightened the end of the tunnel, promising a sweet relief, part of me would be forever left behind in the shadows that now clung to my arms, my hips, my legs. It was all I could do to keep myself from pushing Josephine forward, faster. But she had to emerge from the darkness on her own. Her confession would be both our salvations.
“I was afraid.” Again, Josephine’s voice was soft.
It was a weak admission. A red herring. “What were you afraid of? Why did you read the book?” Closer and closer the exit came. I didn’t know what was waiting out there for us. I needed to know what she’d intended when she did what she’d been forbidden to do.
“I thought it would protect me.” We crossed out of the tunnel and into the light. Josephine ahead with me at her heel. “I thought it would give me the spell to stop…” She hesitated, unwilling to go on in either word or step.
I stopped close behind, careful not to touch her. She had to take this final step on her own. Instead, I gazed at the beauty that lay before us.
It was a gorgeous valley with a forest at its center. Instead of verdant greens, the forest’s leaves were the fall colors of browns, yellows, oranges, and—in the center—red. The path led down the hill and passed a babbling stream, winding into that forest. The sun above us shone bright at high noon. Josephine turned her face upward, letting the sun warm her skin. She had her eyes closed.
I lowered my voice and prompted her with her own words. “The spell to stop…?”
“My death at the hands of the Black Wind.” Josephine whispered to the uncaring sky.
It seemed that the Black Wind needed to be spoken of sooner rather than later. How could this Black Wind kill her and why? What was within her that could stop something like an Outer God? “I don’t understand.”
The valley below us flickered. One moment it was lush mountainside, the next it was a roiling ocean with white capped waves. I blinked and shook my head. The gorgeous flora returned.
Josephine turned to me. “I fear I have hastened my end. I read the book, and its madness brings the Black Wind ever closer. I should never have been so foolish. I must rid myself of this burden.” She looked over her shoulder at the forest. “And I will. There, in the Red House.” She took a step backward.
As she did, the landscape changed again. The valley disappeared and the angry ocean with its violent waves reappeared. Instead of flat ground, we were on slick rock. The wind howled around us. Josephine gasped, slipping and falling. I reached for her. Our fingertips touched and then she was gone, tumbling to the rocks.
Josephine hit the ground of the valley hard. She’d landed on the path that led us into the heart of the forest below. I hunkered, waiting for the land to change again. It did not. I stood and focused on thinking we were in the valley of the Red House, hoping it would keep us stable.
“Josephine?”
For a moment, she did nothing except lie there on her back. She screwed up her face in a way that made me think she was going to laugh. It would’ve broken the sudden darkness of the situation and deflected her fear and the uncertainty of our surroundings.
She didn’t laugh.
Josephine arched with a shriek of pain and turned over. Her back bulged and moved under her shirt. She pulled her tucked blouse out of her pants and craned her neck. We both saw the book-shaped thing press against her skin, its corners cutting through, blood leaking through punctured flesh. Josephine gasped in pain. “Get it out. Help me, Doctor! Please!”