Before the Sky Fell

[ 26 ] The Ladder of Trees

-26-

The Ladder of Trees

Whik stood, flabbergasted, above the corpse of his younger self. His fingers felt numb, resting against his trembling knees. A knot rose in his throat.

John took a step back. "What do you mean it's you?"

"I mean it's me," Whik told him. "That's the red cape my mother made for me when I was younger. It's me."

"Dialano," said Pelk, his eyebrows rising. "Dark magic."

John laughed. "Haven't heard of witchery in these parts since the ancient days. The heat must be getting to him. Here, drink some water." John handed Whik the deerskin pouch, but Whik lifted his hand and pushed it away, bracing himself against the tree above the child's corpse.

Whik's face was twisted in pain. His headache pushed its way from his temples to the back of his head in pulsating waves. "We have to keep moving," he told them. "We have to get to the pass." He stepped over the corpse.

Whik could feel their eyes on his back. They're judging me. Thinking I'm crazed. In that moment he wished he was in Frankford Millstone's study. Charlotte would be there too, standing in the corner with her face reddened by one of Frankford's insults.

As the sun waned, they trekked through the forest. No one spoke, no one human at least. The cliff sparrows filled the air with music, some of it good, some of it painful. John hummed along with their voices.

A fog gathered around them after a while. It built in thickness as they walked on. The cliff sparrows' song changed. It turned into something dark, something foreboding. The males bellowed a heavy tone. The females, something sharp. A warning, most likely. Sonora would have changed their song. The foliage was thick there, the air cold. Whik moved through the fog, his feet appearing and disappearing from view. He took the cloud in. It was tantalizing, a smell that was pure and new. His hands glistened from the moisture.

When the fog cleared, all they saw was rock. The cliff stretched well above the trees. Thorny vines weaved in and out of the crevices.

"There was a myth," John started, "that we found etched on a parchment when we arrived on the island. It spoke of this cliff face. They called it the ladder to the gods." The protruding trees shot out horizontally along the start of the mountain, creating an intricate maze of wooden beams from which the trio could navigate the wall vertically. "Though when they reached the top, they only found clouds."

Whik stepped forward, bracing his arms on the first trunk and climbing up the scales of the winding trees. The bases were slippery beneath his feet, so he kicked off his withering sandals. He missed this smell, of dirt and bark and adventure.

"Wait," Whik heard as he lifted himself over the trunks. He looked back as John and Pelk took a step back.

John strained his neck. "You mean to climb this?"

"We have to," Whik said.

"Whik, I don't know what you have in mind, but I'm not as young as you, as limber. What's up there that you hope to find? Answers?"

"Yes. Answers." Whik turned and sat on the limb.

"I don't know that we seek the same answers," John told him. He looked to Pelk, who eyed the trees suspiciously. "Whik, I'm getting old. I've lost my wife. All I have is Pelk. To ask us to climb this, to find who knows what on the other side, that's just... it just doesn't make sense."

They're right. None of this makes sense. Whik looked up and stared into the foggy heavens. "When I was nine," he said, "back in Hemonstalia, I was playing hide and find in the forest with my friend, Sonora. I could never find her, so I lost nearly every game. I grew so angry that I left her in the forest. That's when the Larks invaded. In that moment, not any other moment, not when we were returning home for supper, or swimming in the creek, but right when I grew angry and left my friend. But I can live with that. I can live with knowing that they died, that they can't endure in this evil world any longer. What I can't live with is this. I used a device in the dungeon of an old man and I created another world. There was another me out there. John, there was another you, and Pelk, there were two of you as well. What I can't live with is knowing that they died twice, for nothing, in this world and in that. I'm going to climb this cliff because I need to find that item and destroy it, so no one can every duplicate the misery that we've endured. So that there's only one death, only one horrible life. I understand if you can't join me. But tell me this. The Larks swarm the island. Eckrondale is sure to fall. We don't have the forces to hold the city. So what do you have to lose?"