Faded

Drops of blood sprinkled onto the ground like raindrops as she ran, leaving a deadly trail behind for them to follow. Her heart was trying to escape through her throat as her breathing grew more and more ragged and her vision began to blur. She held the bundle in her arms as the sound of footsteps echoed on the stone steps behind her. Almost there. She was almost there. Just a little farther until she reached the glistening pool that would save them both. Her eyes grew heavier as she blinked, the world tilting a little on its axis as she used the wall with her free hand for leverage.

“Where is she?” called a familiar voice behind her, and she held her breath as she hid in the shadows of the cave. The bundle in her arms stirred, and she prayed to the heavens that it settled. The footsteps stopped for a moment as she closed her eyes, a dangerous move considering how weak she was feeling. There was some light, frantic chatter, and she used the noise to tiptoe closer to her destination. So close. “There, on the ground! Blood!” She gasped as the footsteps continued, leaving her no choice but to carry on with her running.

The bundle began to cry, and she held it closer to her chest as she crossed the stone archway. She’d made it, thank the angels above. She pressed her hand against the wall and tried to catch her breath. They were closer now. She probably only had a couple minutes until they found her. Sucking in large breaths of air, she approached the glistening black pool in the center of the large dungeon. Sitting on a stone throne atop a large staircase overlooking the pool was a woman with eight long limbs, flowing white hair, and glowing eyes to match.

The woman smiled. “I’ve been expecting you, Your Majesty,” she said in her ethereal voice, and the girl gave a respectful bow that quickly turned into a stumble.

“Karessa,” the girl said, her voice hoarse and her vision starting to turn black. “Please. Help me. They’ll be here any moment. Once they find me, they’ll take me back. And he’ll kill me.”

“And the child?” the woman asked, her white eyes falling on the bundle in the girl’s arms. When she saw the fleshy cord connecting the girl to the bundle, she gasped. “You haven’t cut it?”

The girl shook her head. “There was no time. I had to hurry.” Tears burned her eyes. “I had to leave the other one behind. But he’ll be safe.”

The woman named Karessa nodded. The footsteps behind them were growing louder as the soldiers began making their way into the cave. Karessa sighed, her voice even as she said “They’ll be here soon. I believe I can hold them off to give you a little extra time. But don’t take long.”

She gave the woman called Karessa an appreciative smile, then watched as she crawled down the wall like a spider before going back the way the girl had just come. The girl watched her leave with tired eyes, and then she fell to her knees in front of the pool. In her arms, the bundle stirred. She lifted the fabric and revealed the face of a newborn baby, tufts of brown hair poking out beneath the soft blanket she was wrapped up in. Not even an hour old. The girl felt a tear fall from her eyes as she searched around for a sharp rock. Once she found one, she held it against the cord and cut it, releasing the child and giving it a life of its own.

The baby began to cry as if it could sense the sudden cut connection from its mother. “Shh,” the girl whispered as she held its little bloody body toward her chest. “It’s okay, little princess. Don’t cry. You’ll be safe soon. Soon this will all be just a memory.” She didn’t want to say what she was really thinking. That soon she would be just a memory. She pressed a kiss to the crying baby’s temple and held it tighter to her chest. There was a fight going on behind her. She could hear the scuffling growing closer and closer by the moment. The screams as the woman with the eight legs fought the men who were trying to steal her baby from her. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered against the baby’s cheek, relishing in the infant’s warmth. She herself felt so cold that the warmth of the child almost burned her lips. “I have to. You’ll understand someday, I promise. But for now, I… I have to let you go.”

The baby began to cry again, as if she knew that this would be the last time she would see her mother. Carefully, the girl set the baby down in the glistening black pool in front of her. Singing a soft lullaby to ease the baby’s cries, she removed her hands from the bundle and watched as it sank into the dark water. Within moments the baby was beneath its surface. It was done. She’d released her daughter. Set her free. Now there was nothing left to do but wait.

Her breathing was getting shallower, and her stomach cramped as the placenta detached from her uterine walls and expelled itself onto the ground in front of her. She cried out in pain as she curled into a ball, feeling the slimy sac slip out between her legs. More blood oozed out of her, and she blinked, hard and heavy. Sweat formed atop her brow as the darkness came for her. Another minute and she was gone.

By the time the soldiers came in, the body of the eight-legged woman hanging over one of their shoulders, the girl was lying just outside of the glistening black pool, her body drenched in blood. The soldier carrying the eight-legged woman dropped her body to the ground and approached the girl. Then he got to his knees to examine her, pressing a finger against her throat to check for a pulse. There were tears staining her ghost white cheeks, and the cord that had just been cut was lying like a snake between her legs, attached to the flat sac splayed out against the stones. He wrinkled his nose in disgust as he kicked the cord away with his boot. Then he pulled out a small dagger with emeralds on the hilt and rammed it through the girl’s heart for good measure.

The other soldiers watched as he got back to his feet and spit on the ground beside the lifeless body of the girl. Another soldier slowly approached behind him and whispered, “His Majesty is not going to be happy when he finds out what happened.”

But the first soldier just shook his head, wiping the girl’s blood against the starweaver silk covering his legs. “This witch deserves worse, believe me. Search the room for the little princess. She can’t be too far.” The other soldiers all muttered words of agreement as they began searching the room, looking behind every stone and checking every shadow for the bundle the girl had been carrying. After several minutes of looking, the first soldier stared down at the glistening pool in front of him, his mouth contorted in rage.

“Sir,” another soldier said as he ran toward the first, his eyes falling on the dark water before them. “You don’t think….”

The first soldier scowled. “Do you want to dive in there and find out for yourself?” he snapped, turning his head toward the man standing beside him. The younger soldier’s eyes widened as he shook his head. They didn’t know much about the pool, but it was clear the water was not normal. There was something mystical about the dark pool of glittering water. It was clearly magic, and therefore it was evil. Just staring at the pool of water made them feel off balance. The younger of the two men took a step away from the water, and the first man smirked arrogantly. “I thought not. You’d best keep looking then. Leave no stone unturned. We cannot leave here without that child.”

Even he shuddered to think what would happen if he returned to the palace without the princess. His Majesty would surely have his head for his failure. He glared down at the body of the girl again. It was her fault. She had caused all of this with her magic. Angrily, he swung his foot back and kicked at the girl’s body so hard that she rolled into the water. Within moments she disappeared beneath its surface. It would serve her right that her final resting place should be darkness. It was what she deserved after all she had done.

The men looked for hours. Tore apart the old dungeon rock by rock, stone by stone, destroying a sacred monument they had no idea had been standing for millennia. The body of the eight-legged woman named Karessa stirred on the ground, and when she woke up and discovered what the men were doing to the place she’d called home for thousands of years, she closed her eyes and smiled. Foolish men. They had no way of knowing what the girl had done, although after a time they began to suspect. Still, it was hard to believe someone would doom their own newborn in such a way. Would dump their own helpless child in these dark waters and leave it to drown. They didn’t understand the pool’s magic like the girl had. Like the woman named Karessa did. They didn’t know that the child was currently floating through time, the soul of her mother helping her find a soft place to land.