30 - Arrival in the Unknown
Chapter 0 – Arrival in the Unknown
“The blue above him was thinning”
Rhesus saw it through a gap between two circling stones. Beyond them lay blackness. A bright rim curved below him, then the water slid back across his eyes.
It was everywhere.
Black strands pressed against his body. Ice held them together. Blood hung between them in thick, dark streaks, and light kept flashing through the mixture. The discharges ran over the trapped stones and vanished behind his head.
He wanted to raise his arms.
Something held them in place.
His whole chest tightened. He opened his mouth, managed a short breath and immediately tried to draw another. The next came only when he thought he could bear it no longer.
Below him, the bright rim grew smaller.
He knew he was falling. Only the direction was wrong.
At times he could see nothing. Then the darkness before his eyes split open, and distant lights were in different places than before. He could not tell whether he had slept in between.
Once, something moved behind him.
He could make out shapes through the water. Cloaks spreading apart in the blackness. One came closer. Where a face should have been was the shadow of a hood.
Rhesus tried to turn away.
The figure reached out an arm.
Pressure passed through the water.
It came from outside.
For a moment, Rhesus was squeezed so tightly within his shell that the breath was driven from his chest. The stones struck one another. Light filled the narrow space before his face.
Then the cloaks dropped sharply back.
They grew smaller while he was still trying to move his fingers.
At last, only a dark patch remained among the distant lights.
That vanished too.
Next came heat.
A rumble lodged in his teeth. Something broke. He was hurled forwards, caught, then wrenched round again.
Then he hit the ground.
When he opened his eyes, his cheek lay in warm mud.
He drew a breath and coughed. The pain beneath his ribs forced him onto his side. Something hard pressed into his back. He felt for it, grasped a stone and pushed it away.
Smoke hung above him.
Dark material burned along the edges of the hollow. Water hissed into cracks. Higher up, beyond the heaped earth, lay snow.
Rhesus stared at it.
He tried to sit up. His left knee gave way before he had even drawn it up properly. For a while he lay with both hands on the ground, waiting for the blackness at the edge of his vision to recede.
He had to get out of here.
The thought was clear. Everything before it was missing.
He searched for a name. For somewhere he could call to mind. Nothing came.
When he finally got to his knees, he felt sick. He spat into the mud and stayed bent forwards until he could see again. Then he crawled towards the gentler slope of the hollow.
At the top, the wind hit him.
He pressed his arms against his body. What remained of his clothes clung to him. After only a few steps, he could barely feel his fingers.
Something cracked loudly behind him.
He turned. A dark slab sank into the water at the bottom. Steam closed over it.
There was a narrow cleft in the rock face ahead of him.
He made it that far on his feet. Once inside, he had to support himself again. He felt his way along the wall, beneath a low ledge, until the wind brushed only his ankles.
He stayed where he lay.
He heard the water outside. His own breathing. A faint trickling somewhere above him.
He edged a little further away from the wall.
Then everything went dark.
