He speaks, and the words that flow fromhis lips are like nothing I’ve ever heard. The sounds are sharp and liquid at the same time, stretching and bending in ways that make my ears ache. His voice drops low, into almost a chant, and it pulses through our joined hands, through my arm and into my chest.
The hairs on my arms stand up.
He steps forward, pulling me with him, and presses our joined hands against the stone. It’s cold, the carvings dig into my flesh, and as I watch, our blood flows along the grooves. Pressure builds in the air around us, in my chest, behind my eyes, and in the spaces between my ribs. It draws in closer, pressing against me until every breath becomes a battle I’m losing.
When the tension finally relaxes, I gasp, knees buckling, and the only thing keeping me upright is his grip on me. A cracking sound fills the air around us, and my eyes snap to him.
One of his antlers has split. A chunk of bone falls away, tumbling past his shoulder, and lands at his feet. I’m not sure he even notices, as focused as he is on the stone.
When I look down at it, the carvings have changed. The worn grooves are darker now, coated with our blood, and vibrating under my palm. His chanting stops, and he steps back, letting his hand slide off the stone.
I stumble backward, my palm pulling away with a wet, sticky sound. Blood, his and mine, smears across my fingers, and drips onto the leaves at my feet. I cradle my hand against my chest and stare at him.
“What was that? What did you do?”
But, of course, he doesn’t answer, reaching for my arm, and pulling me after him, at a fast walk. Orhe’swalking. I’m staggering. The forest floor won’t stay level. It keeps tilting beneath me, rising and falling. One moment I’m walking, my feet barely finding purchase. The next I’m on my knees in the dirt. The impact jars through my broken ribs, and I cry out,unable to stop the sound. My arm pulls from his grip and my hands hit the ground.
He stops, turns, and looks down at me.
I try to get up. I do. I put my hands flat and push, my arms shaking. My elbows give out, and my face hits the dirt.
“I can’t.” The words come out broken. “I can’t. I can’t.”
He doesn’t say anything at all, just reaches down, grabs me under the arms, and hauls me to my feet, but my legs won’t hold me. I sag against him, my forehead hitting his chest, and I just hang there, limp in his grip, too exhausted and in pain to feel ashamed at my weakness.
One arm snakes around my waist, the other hooks behind my knees, and he lifts me. My head drops to his shoulder, and I can’t find it in me to care. I can’t find it in me to do anything except let him move me wherever he wants me to go.
More bits of antler fall, tiny pieces hitting my face as they drop. I try to lift my head to look, but the movement makes the world spin, and I have to close my eyes against the nausea.
When I open them again, I don’t know how much time has passed. The light has changed, the sun is lower in the sky, and the shadows between the trees have grown longer and darker.
He stops, and lowers me to the ground. My back hits a tree trunk, and I slump against it, my head lolling, arms limp at my sides. I blink, trying to focus, and then I see it. Another stone. Gray, weathered, half-buried in the earth. The same strange markings as the other one.
He crouches in front of me, putting his face level with mine. The antlers are worse now. That massive twelve-point spread has crumbled to jagged stumps. Pieces flake away while I watch, small fragments drifting down around his face.
He takes my hand.
“Not again.”
He ignores me, and his nail reopens the cuts on both our hands. He presses our palms together, our blood mingling for a second time, before he guides our hands to the stone.
The pressure builds … builds … until sound turns muffled, my eyes hurt, my ears. Every bone in my body throbs, pulses, and then …
It breaks.Snaps. And the entire world disappears into a blinding white flash.
Somewhere beyond sight, I feel him lift me, hear the rhythm of his footsteps, feel the heat of his body through my clothes.
Time skips.Jumps. One moment there’s too much light behind my eyelids, the next there’s darkness. One moment I’m being carried, and then I’m on the ground, cold stone pressing against my cheek.
I force my eyes open.
We’re somewhere dark, with rock walls either side, and a low ceiling. A cave, I think. The entrance is a smear of fading light, and he’s standing in front of it, his back to me, his hands moving while he murmurs. Goosebumps rise on my skin as the air around him shivers and thickens.
He turns and walks back to me.
I’m lying on my side, one arm curled around my broken ribs, cheek pressed against the ground. Everything hurts, and I’m so tired. All I want to do is close my eyes, and wake up with this nightmare over … or never wake up at all.
He crouches beside me and I force myself to look at him. The antlers are mostly gone now, his skin more pale than gray-green. He looks half-finished, caught between two shapes, neither one thing nor the other.
