Appellere, "drive to" or "come ashore"

by Lise

The Chapter of Breathing the Air and of having Power over the Water in the Underworld:

Saith Osiris Ani: "Open to me! Who art thou then, and wither dost thou fare? I am one of you. Who is with thee? It is Merti. Separate thou from him, each from each, when thou enterest the Mesqen. He letteth me sail to the temple of the divine beings who have found their faces. The name of the boat is 'Assembler of souls'; the name of the oars is 'Making the hair to stand on end'; the name of the hold is 'Good'; and the name of the rudder is 'Making straight for the middle'."

V.
~

LORNA

*

"Lorna, are-- are you okay?"

I sniff, wipe my eyes. "Oh, yeah. I'm, I'm okay, Kitty."

She sits down, folds her legs up gracefully. "Are you sure?"

Wipe my eyes again on the kerchief. Already, my eyes are drying, and I've forgotten the sensation that plunged me over, why I'd started in the first place. It doesn't matter. "Yeah, I'm okay. I," and I blush, "I need some more rags. For, you know."

She smiles kindly. "I understand. I'm always extra-bitchy, myself." Pats my shoulder. "Anything I can do to alleviate, make things easier?"

Shake my head, and she's up and away.

She doesn't understand. I like to be force-fed crying this way. It's the only way I remember how.

Kitty and Irene are going to find Cable and Domino, today. Irene saw them being swallowed -- like so many of her visions end up being-- because they are unaware of a boat full of saviors.

That's what she told me.

I see she is afraid.

The boat full of saviors, they are hoping might be the Twelve. I understand Cable's searching. I understand, but I can't, I mean, I don't.

When they leave, I whisper, "Good luck" under my breath, and don't think of praying.

~

DOMINO

*

I turn around and see two women approaching, through the haze. Nate is bathing in the ocean, cleaning his face. We've been gone overnight, through only two shifts, and he's still sane and rational.

Which is good. Because it's Kitty and Irene that are coming towards us.

I'm all set to start hollering at them, insulting intelligence, common sense, and decency -- they didn't think we came out here for the view, right? Privacy, girls? What does it mean?

Oh yes, I'm all set to tear into them. I don't have time.

My eyes widen, sensing the thing about to pounce on the old woman before we all see it.

She crumples up because one of the vines shoots itself into her ribs, and seems to... do something, to her spinal cord. I see it warp.

I break into a run, muttering, "Let the shift stay stable, let the shift stay--"

Nate follows me. Kitty's already laid her out, as carefully as she can, and cut the vine so it's sticking out the small of her back.

"Okay, who's brilliant idea was this?"

Nate, angry. Kitty answers, "Irene saw a-- a boat full of the Twelve coming to you, and the two of you never coming home because one of them would turn. We came to warn you... and maybe, to help you convince them to come back."

"And you took her word, just like that? A fucking boat?"

Kitty hesitates. "She believed it enough to come out here, didn't she?"

"Fine then, she believed it." And Nate's determined. "Then let's go. Obviously this isn't the safe place we thought it was."

Kitty says, "You can't just leave her like that, Nate!"

The body, barely breathing, shifts and moans. Her face is white from the lack of blood. A vine reaches out, and tries to grab her, which Kitty phases her through just in time.

Nate is staring down at Irene. His hands are rubbing against each other, a rhythmic ode, a funeral dirge, an echo of oars in the water. His mouth says, "We can't move her, you know that. And I don't know if, I don't know."

His mind and his face say, 'there should be a boat.' It wells up out of something within him, possibly out of Irene.

I hold my breath, watched Kitty glare, eyes shining.

We stand on the shore of some abandoned ocean, right where Irene said the boat of the gods would deliver the twelve apostles to the slaughter, and the only thing being done is a lot of arguing.

"We can handle a bad shift, Nate. And we can't lose Irene."

Nate rubs his hands together.

I hear the splash of oars.

Suddenly he says, with a funny look on his face, "It might even be poison gas, at which point we'll all die on this beach, waiting for Jesus. Friday is the holy day for Islam."

His mind comes up with the image of Charles' hands, nailed to a piece of splintery planking, and it hits me-- the wood was from some old tall-ship. A tall-ship in the middle of the desert.

Jesus. Something here is making him fall apart.

Kitty stands up, her full height barely reaching Nate's shoulders. I mutter, "We're going to die."

Neither of them notices the splashing off-shore.

~

NATE

*

Something is buzzing in my skull, like a small little bee but more malignant. Here is the beach she warned us about, waves lapping up and sand white as snow. Here too, are predatory vines which think, little buzzing thoughts about secrets and hiding.

This world has sentient plants. Each step is sure to offend them.

At my feet, goddamned Irene is bleeding to death, possible spinal injury.

"I don't think I can shift her with the teke, Kit."

Dom looks a bit confused. "We haven't been out this long. He shouldn't be this... gone, yet."

I feel that little buzz get louder, more insistent. The plants are getting angry-- what an absurd thought. "I don't see any fucking boat, either way, Kitty. She was wrong again."

"But--"

"Kitty." I growl, and don't notice my hands all dirty, the splashing. My head is funny, something doing it. Presence of something-- "We can't do anything. Unless you've got an idea--"

"Can you carry her if I phase her? Can you stop the bleeding?"

Dom hunkers down beside Kitty, and gingerly tips Irene's head back. "That neck wound is already just about closed thanks to Nate." I can feel Dom's concern, but her practicality burns through. "He can't do anything else."

I hear Kitty think at me, with venom, <<Scott wouldn't have left her behind.>>

<<Don't fucking-- don't.>> Anger floods me. <<She's never going to get out of here on her own, Kitty. Accept it.>>

To my face, she replies, "Then I'll carry her."

~

KITTY

*

I will not accept that there's nothing we can do here.

There must be something. Irene might not be able to see everything as clearly as before the shifts began, but she sees, damnit, and I'm not going to lose her.

She can speak.

Domino shakes her head. "You'll kill her if you move her, Kit."

"Can you steady her spine, Nate?"

He looks doubtful, rubs his hands against his face. His fingers stay in motion. "Maybe. I don't know. That line's coming quickly, though, and it has monsters in it--"

A look from Domino, and he quiets down.

"Anyway," he mutters, "The sun's just about up. This beach won't stay hidden from the rest of them much longer."

"Rest of who?"

He looks at the forest in front of us, where more vines are trying to grow themselves faster and wrap around our feet, grow away from the line eating up their habitat. On the other side, things are all yellow. Never a good sign.

Domino is looking at him a little oddly. "Nate, something's going on here that isn't just shift-shit, isn't it?"

He glances back at her, almost surprised she spoke. "Oh, well, yes. The plants are alive. They're trying to hide the beach again, so their gods can return to them." Softer. "They're thinking at me that we should leave, but it's too late now. We've seen it."

I ignore him, speak directly to Domino. "I'm not going to leave her to die."

"You're going to have to."

"Nate," I say, turning to him, still squinting at the plants. "Can you do this?"

He rubs his face, as if to scrub away what he was seeing. Less than two days here and he's acting loopy. I test Irene's pulse-- weak, but there. He swivels around, glaring at the water. "We've got to get out of here. Now."

I gently tuck my arms under her neck and her knees, gesturing for Nate to get ready to keep her steady. "Now?"

Domino shakes her head. "You'll be carrying back a dead woman, Kitty. She's never going to make it and she'll slow us down." She points at the ocean. "And what about the prophesy? Are we going to leave before we see who's coming to meet us?"

I phase, and lift her, scowling. "She won't make it if we don't leave now."

I remember this feeling. This helplessness. But she won't die here. I won't let it.

~

FRANKLIN

*

They show up about midnight, Kitty's face haggard and a body in her arms. I grimace, but meet them with bandages and fresh water. First thing I do is burn away residue from Nate; he's resonating fairly harshly for being out that short a time, and the perpetual scowl isn't a good sign. Docile but angry Nate is an even more worrying idea, so when he doesn't argue and goes straight to bed, I raise an eyebrow at Kitty.

Her answer is, "Some plants got the better of him. And we didn't find any boats."

Domino follows Nate after dumping her pack on me, and Kitty hovers while Ilsa and I try to tend to Irene's wounds. She really shouldn't be alive; now that Nate's not stitching her back together telekinetically, her heartbeat's slowing fast. Ilsa applies pressure, telling me to hurry up-- the mind is slipping away.

I concentrate, and try to repair the damage as best I can. Kitty watches on, and sighs in relief when Irene opens her eyes groggily. Her hands go up, signing, and Ilsa says automatically, "She wants to know what happened."

Kitty looks at her hands, and walks away. I look at Irene, and sigh. "I don't know."

I don't know if I'll ever know.

Later on, Kitty is more approachable. After dinner, I broach the topic of their excursion to check on Irene's vision of the Twelve. "Could you stop it?"

She continues to work on the circuitry in her lap. "We didn't find a boat."

"Is that what she saw?"

The board slipped out of her hands, and she looks defeated, suddenly. "I don't know, Franklin." Sighs. "I really don't know."

That night, I dream about the ocean where Dad used to take me while I was growing up, and then about a great wolf eating the sun. I tell Domino, and her face looks like it would pale, except there's no possible way for it to whiten.

A few of the children get into a fight, I break them up. Don't see Nate all day, except when he gets some food and takes it back into his room. Kitty brings Irene her breakfast, and refuses to disbelieve.

[saturday -->]

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