Touch the Sky

Excerpt from Nadine's new novel, Touch the Sky, coming December 2021! (Or as soon as her motivation returns after Os)

My Third Brother Weihong once told us about the land on the other side of the lake.

We had been watching the sun set when he had started to talk. He described it to my brothers and me as a place of vastness, the realm of the infinite reality, the great beyond that eluded everyone.

"Honestly," my fourth brother, Ailen, had scoffed. He didn't bother looking up from the scroll he was studying. "Your stories are getting more and more elaborate and ridiculous."

Ailen did always have a rather sharp tongue, and I glanced at his direction reproachfully. Ailen and Weihong had always bickered the most amongst us siblings, and I had really wanted to hear Weihong's tale.

Luckily, Weihong didn't appear to take offense. He continued on in his storytelling voice, which was smooth and fine as silk. "It is a realm of endless becoming, a winding of pathways of fables and existence."

"Well?" Teren, my twin brother, had asked. Wonder coloured his voice, and he was equally as enraptured as I was. "Where is it?"

Weihong looked at us fondly. "It is found in the place of endless beginning, of course. The place which blends divinity and humanity. Look at the sky, and tell me, where do you think this place is?"

We were quiet for a moment as we observed the setting sun. At last, Teren spoke. "The horizon connects the sky and the sea. Is this place... beyond the horizon?"

Weihong smiled triumphantly.

I sucked in a breath, looking over the edge of the creek, where the thin line danced between heaven and earth. The sun was setting, streaking layers of red paint across the sky. I could just imagine a world beyond this one, close, and yet so far. "Can we go there now?"

He laughed. "No, no. Not yet. But not to worry. We will all go there someday, when the time is right."

Teren and I exchanged disappointed glances.

"People have said, however," Weihong continued, "That the sun never sets in the beyond. Green moss unfurls beneath your feet like a thick carpet, and you can run around barefooted and never hurt yourself. They say the sunshine spreads like butter over the hills. You can dance with birds and fae without ever tiring. You can dip your feet into the creek, a small brook of cascading water surrounded by a grove of lilies. And when you are ready..."

I leaned forward, holding my breath in anticipation. Behind me, I could feel my other brothers listening in as well. As much as they ridiculed his talent for storytelling, they were powerless against the enchantment of a good story. Folklore and fairy tales had always spilled from Weihong's lips like honey, rich and vibrant in his limitless imagination.

"When you are ready, you skip your final stone across the surface of the water, and you follow. Past the mist. Past the lake. And all the way beyond."

Beyond.

I never thought I would actually see it.