Chapter 10 MENDING THE FORTRESS

I opened my eyes and, although I still felt an odd tightness in my chest, I could see the black hilt of the sword protruding from my chest. I moved to touch it, and my arms went right through it. I rubbed my eyes. I could see it, I knew it was there, but I couldn't touch it. Just as King Christian said, it wasn't made from the one hundred and twenty-five elements I could control. It was made of something I couldn't even touch.

I slid out of bed.

Aside from the sword, it was clear that the King of the Crimson Forest had been meddling with my body. When I placed my weight on the floor and stood upright, a bunch of pale little balls in my nightgown fell to the floor. I bent over to see what they were. I picked one up and squished it between my finger and thumb. I yelped and dropped it. It was a wad of skin and fat that he had removed and let fall off. I shook out my nightie. There were quite a few of them.

I yanked off my nightdress as I rushed to the bathroom to have a look at what he'd done. Looking at myself in the mirror, I saw the sword's tip poking out of my back as well as sticking out of my chest.

Looking at the rest of my body, I realized quickly that I had never been that lean in my entire life. Removing my body fat had made my muscles visible. My hair was straighter than it had been before, and even though I had been lying in bed for an immeasurable period of time, my hair wasn't even ruffled. It fell in waves, almost like it had a life of its own... or at least like it finally knew it was hair and was behaving accordingly instead of frizzing at everything.

Checking myself out, I thought of the attention to detail it would take in the Red Forest to train every line in my body. The changes I'd made myself had never been that significant. I didn't have that kind of power or a reckless spirit. The King of the Red Forest was a sculptor, and I was his artwork. But he had only been alone with my body for a few seconds.

I put on a new set of clothing (leggings and a long button-up front shirt), then I started doing what King Christian had instructed me to do. At first, I walked around and commanded individual stones to move by touching them, the same way I had started giving my body commands in the Red Forest.

Soon, just as he told me, I found the corners of passageways. Too small to fit through, I saw patterns in the puzzle and began moving entire walls with a wave of my hand. As promised, the castle was much larger than I had been led to believe, and soon I was walking through parts that had been hidden behind stone walls.

Walking through the rooms brought back bad memories because the castle was organized in the same way as the compound outside Edmonton. There were meeting rooms and rooms like the ones I had just left, meant for imprisoning those who couldn't die. I checked the spaces, curious as to whether there were more people like me locked away, but they were empty.

Eventually, it seemed that I had explored everywhere, and the only thing that was left was a circle on the floor with the stones arranged in a spiral. I knew what it was immediately. These were the stone steps that led straight down through a tunnel in the mountain. If I could get them to open for me, I could go down.

It wasn't difficult. I stepped on them with commands for them to give way for me, and they immediately obeyed. As I descended downward, I only had fifteen stones to create a staircase that dove miles straight down into the earth. I had to make them move continuously, making stones I had already stepped on leap through the air to catch me as I took a fresh step.

I did that for a while until I realized how inefficient it was. I stopped on one stone and made it travel straight down like an elevator moving at a rate I could tolerate. Everything was nerve-wracking. For one thing, there was no light except the light from above me, and it was disappearing quickly, and I was falling down a tunnel that had no visible bottom. I saw my breath as vapor until the light was gone, and I was plunged into complete darkness.

Uncomfortable, I whispered, "Is anyone there?"

The rock slab beneath my feet trembled, and I felt like it was listening.

I rubbed my foot across the stone. Speaking aloud, I asked, "What kind of rock are you?"

I heard it rumble. "It's nice that you can talk to rocks."

"Apparently, I can," I gaped in wonder. "You heard me and obeyed me earlier. It's only natural that I should be able to hear you too. You are a very white stone. Do you know what kind of stone you are?"

"I'm dolomite," it whispered.

"Calcium magnesium carbonate," I replied, understanding fully. "Did you know you could become a diamond someday?"

"Could I? I thought I was part of a staircase, but you abandoned the others."

"Were they your family?"

"Rocks don't have families. Neither do you."

I nodded my agreement before I realized the rock wouldn't be able to see my nod and said, "I guess so."

"I'm glad you chose me. It will be exciting to be with a creator."

I scoffed. "I'm not a creator."

It didn't dispute that. Instead, it asked, "When we get to the bottom of the tunnel, may I stay with you?"

I thought about its proposal. I had never had a pet rock. Previously, I thought things like that were silly, but suddenly, it wasn't silly. It was great. "Do you have a name?"

"Dolomite," it replied.

"But aren't all rocks that are dolomite called dolomite?"

"There hasn't been anyone around to name us all."

I smiled. That had been extremely cute. I chirped in response, "What happens when you become a diamond? Will I call you Diamond then?"

"Perhaps."

"Do you know how far it is to the bottom?" I asked.

"At this speed, it will be hours, if not days."

"We could go faster..." I muttered uncertainly.

"Are you concerned about falling?"

"A bit," I admitted in the darkness.

"If you fell, you wouldn't die. You probably wouldn't even be hurt. If you're as good at this as you seem, you'll be able to slow yourself down before you hit the bottom of the tunnel. I'd catch you if you needed me to. If we free fall, I can fall faster than you."

"Freefalling through the dark? No thank you." I shook my head, even though the dolomite couldn't see me doing so.

"Shall I assist you?"

"Does assisting me involve you toppling over so I fall for a bit before you catch me?" I asked suspiciously.

I felt something minor spread under my feet, and for a moment, I thought I was feeling the rock smile. "Yes. That is exactly what I had in mind. What are you so afraid of? You know you won't die. Are you concerned about landing on something at the bottom and killing it? Again, that is completely impossible. There is nothing here you could kill. All the people here are immortal. Are you worried about falling on your face like an idiot?"

"Maybe," I whispered. "Maybe I'm afraid of a lot of things."

"Maybe it's time to stop being afraid of everything."

"Are you going to drop me?"

"Yes."

"Don't you have to do what I say?" I protested.

It hesitated before answering. "Yes. But that doesn't mean I can't care for you."

I felt both my eyebrows arch in the darkness. "Excuse me? Are you threatening me with tough love?"

"There's no such thing as tough love. There's only love. If you want my opinion, you should just drop."

"Is that what the other people did who left the castle and took this tunnel? Just dropped?" I asked.

"Of course not. They were cowards. They did not have the power to awaken rock."

"So, they couldn't command every element?"

"Exactly. The first one anyone learns is calcium, and I'm not entirely calcium, but I have enough of it in me for a beginner to order me about."

"You're about a million times prettier than calcium," I said out loud as I thought of the bright white stone I was using.

"How about if you fall a little way and then I catch you?"

I scratched my forehead irritably. I was about to get pushy and make the dolomite do what I said when suddenly I realized that was the wrong answer. I had to listen to it and do what it suggested. It worked the same way when I listened to the cells in my body when they told me better ways for reconstruction than what I thought of on my own. Being the one with the control didn't make me not a fool.

"Okay," I said, and without further ado, it dropped me.

I yelped with surprise, but within a second, I had ordered the calcium in my bones the same way I'd ordered the dolomite, and I was floating at roughly the same speed as before. I couldn't see what happened to the dolomite, but sensed it beneath me, waiting for me. It caught me as promised.

"Do you see? You don't even need me," it murmured happily.

I clapped my hands together. "Okay. Let's drop. Will you be able to slow down at the bottom on your own?"

"You haven't said whether or not I can stay with you," it reminded me.

I thought it over before I answered. "If I take you with me, you can't be a stone in the staircase anymore," I said. "You won't fit in the staircase anymore because you'll be a different shape, and you'll have a different name. You'll be my rock."

"Yes! Please! All of that!" it said.

I thought of the shape of Pricina's pet bishop that she'd left in my room. I wanted something like that, except not a bishop. A bishop was not a good shape for sitting on, and I wanted something practical. I wanted a rhuk, like a stool. I went over what it did and what it was called in my mind, sending the instructions to the dolomite.

"I'm going to be called Rhuk, aren't I?" it said, sounding pleased.

"Will you be okay with that?"

"Yes," it murmured as it finished changing shape. "You can sit on me."

I crouched down and felt its smooth surface in the darkness. "You are a much larger rock than I thought you were. You're the size of a chair."

It was the shape of a rhuk, but with some of the turrets on top missing, so I could sit on it comfortably. The turrets were tall enough to be armrests and a backrest. I sat down.

"This is better than falling like a maniac," Rhuk said. "Hold on. Let's speed up."

I held onto the ridges, and we fell with a rush of cold air.

When I finally arrived at the entrance to Nhagaspir, I was met by Christian and Brandon.

They watched me gently descend on my large white rhuk and looked at me like they'd never seen anything stranger in their entire lives. Perhaps their expressions had more to do with the black sword still lodged in my chest than descending on a chess piece.

Judging from the scar still looped around Brandon's throat, he couldn't be very experienced.

When I was close enough, I leaped off Rhuk into Christian's arms. Clasping him to my chest, I asked him, "Did you get your hands bloody yet?"

He stared at me in confusion, tongue-tied.