Darn it. There are oubliettes like that everywhere. Can you be more specific?
Gideon and Carrick. That’s all I’ve got, Juliet. Find them and you’ll find me.
Easier said than done, Lily. They’ve disappeared. No one’s seen them in the city for days. Are you okay?
I’m in pain.
* * *
“Hey, girl. Lily girl. Are you dead?”
Lily uncurled herself from the ball she’d rolled into. Her nerves were still twitching with pain, but at least the worst was over. After she’d stopped screaming, Carrick had put her willstones back in the drawer and left. As a parting shot, he’d asked her whether or not she felt stronger, but she’d been in too much agony to engage in his repartee. She wanted to kill him. She counted that as a good thing. It meant she was still alive and kicking.
“Not yet,” she croaked in answer, unclenching her cramped fists.
“Good to hear. Let’s get started,” the sha
man said enthusiastically.
Lily crawled through the dark toward the bottle of water. “Are you serious?”
“Best time to learn how to spirit walk. Right after a near-death experience or a great shock, like a fever or a seizure.”
“Huh. Go figure.” She thought about the seizure she’d had at Scot’s party, and how she’d seen herself from afar, like she was floating over her own body. “That actually explains a lot,” Lily said, and raised the bottle of water to her lips.
“Put down that water, girl,” he admonished. “You’re starved, which is fantastic, but dehydration is the real key.”
“Fantastic?” Lily asked, not too sure she agreed with his word choice. Her mouth was so dry it felt sore. “Can’t I have one sip?”
“Absolutely not,” the old man replied. “Usually I’d take you to a sweat lodge after your fast. You’d be allowed water there because you’d be sweating it out faster ’en you could drink it. But there’s no hope for a sweat lodge in this freezing cold, now is there?”
“Not really,” she said, putting the water down. It was mostly ice, and she’d have only gotten a few drops out of it anyway. “Wait. How did you see me pick up the bottle? It’s pitch black in here.”
“Darker than the inside of a cat, isn’t it?” The shaman cracked himself up.
“Ah, sure?” Lily said hesitantly. She didn’t have much experience being inside cats.
“Darkness is good for our purpose,” he said, without answering her question. “Now. You need to lie down and relax.”
“That’s the best thing you could have possibly said to me right about now.” She felt her way across the straw-covered floor until she found her bunk, then gratefully pulled herself onto it.
“Now, here’s the hard part, girl,” the shaman said seriously. “I need you to empty your mind.”
“Piece of cake,” Lily mumbled.
“No. Don’t fall asleep.” The shaman’s voice was urgent. “Your spirit is a weak force. Like gravity. It works over vast distances, but the much stronger forces of the body and mind overwhelm the spirit in the short run. You must make the choice to put the spirit first. Let your will direct your spirit, and you can travel vast distances.”
Lily let the shaman’s words hang above her like thought bubbles in a comic book. Each idea was something she could see, suspended above her in black and white, but she didn’t try to think about them too hard. She just accepted them. Her spirit was whisper thin, easily overwhelmed by the howling demands of her body and the hard machinery of her logical thoughts. But as thin as it was, her spirit reached out past the stars and into other worlds.
“Okay. I see it,” she whispered.
“Good,” the shaman breathed. “Now, what do you hear?”
Lily. Are you in pain? We’re trying to find you.
“My sister. She’s looking for me.”
“You must go past that.” The shaman sounded sad. “I know you love her, and the other versions of the people who you love will guide you like bright lights into the other worlds. But Juliet’s mindspeak keeps you tethered to this world. In order to spirit walk you must go up, Lily. Jump up.”