Excerpt: Dodging the Snare (working title)

Chapter 6: Fever Dreams

There was a glacier in a valley up the mountain from her home in Skaelir that provided the water for the town. Amara had fallen into the stream once in early spring when the snow melts were barely warmer than freezing and nearly died from the mind-numbing cold. In her mind, Amara was back there again, though this time it was night, a soul-eating darkness cut only by occasional flashes of lightning that did not even cut through the darkness but simply lit up the heavy clouds far above her, an eternity away but still visible.

She was caught in the middle of the icy water, sitting on a boulder in the middle of the churning stream, sitting hugging her knees to her chest for warmth that could not be found. She was barefoot and naked, with crystals of ice forming on her white skin, spray from the waves crashing into the rock, chilling her further whenever it hit. Save for the rush of water, there was no sound, no people, no life whatsoever in the area around her frozen prison. An era seemed to pass in the time it took her to blink once, a lifetime between heartbeats though she knew her heart was racing inside of her.

The ground shook in a massive earthquake and she was thrown off the boulder, careening, flailing, into the water that chilled her bones. Her head broke the surface and she was lost, everything too dark to find something familiar, and thus she had no way of getting back to the boulder that had been her small comfort. Something clawed at her hair; she tore it away from her, frantically throwing it off of her before she realized it was only her headscarf. Suddenly Jerel was there, saying something to her that she couldn’t understand; Amara watched his lips move, mere shadows of what was really there, but none of the sounds seemed to reach her ears over the rush of water and eddying wind.

A strong current grabbed her and pushed her under, away from Jerel’s arms and the refuge they offered. The water grew colder until she was quite sure her limbs had frozen solid. She could not control them, as much as she tried to move around and swim to the surface. As exhaustion and lightheadedness began to take over, she slipped below the surface, beginning to think she should just surrender, get away from this place. Amara felt like she was falling, though she didn’t seem to be moving at all, suspended below the cold water, just inches from rescue but incapable of getting there, hanging in place like the unfortunate animals that fell into the lake and could not get themselves out of the ice, eventually slipping under and hovering just that little impossible step from safety. She found a rock to hold onto but she remained underwater, trying to muster that little bit of strength.

Out of nowhere, it seemed, lightning flashed and brightened the world enough for her to see him, face wavering and dim through her filter of water over her vision. Jerel grabbed her, brought her to the surface, and she felt a little warmer, a little more secure. But it could not last, for as soon as he’d brought her far enough out for her to whisper “You came back,” another freezing wave knocked them apart, pushing her further downstream, her arms reaching for the lost warmth, for the safety, for Jerel.

This time she was alone again and it seemed to be an absolute certainty that she would remain alone, forever, always in this sea of cold, in the raging storm that only grew worse. The current forced her under, suffocating her, choking her as the water rushed into her body and she was slowly drowning.

Dimly, Amara noticed a change in the light filtering through the muddy water, however small that it was. It was no longer the blackest night but, she noticed as she desperately clawed to the surface, some strength miraculously returning to her arms and legs, the sky had cleared. The wind still blew and the water that carried her like driftwood was as icy cold, as bone-chillingly cold as before but now, instead of the seething mass of ominous storm clouds, she could see pinpricks of light, little stars rising for her to watch.

Amara floated on her back, treading water to stay afloat as the current carried her further downstream, watching the clouds disappear to reveal the most stunning night sky she had ever seen, made more so by her great euphoria at still being alive. Each diamond of light was more captivating than anything else she had ever experienced in the world.

As the sun rose, turning the darkness to light and warming the water around her, the stream gently, almost imperceptibly, deposited her on the shore. She lay there, enjoying the feel of something solid and warm beneath her skin until she became aware of another presence there, sitting beside her in the gravel and grass. “Where did you go?” she asked Jerel, who smiled at her and replied, “I’ve been by you this whole time, love.”

And the fog lifted; for the first time in who knew how long, Amara was herself again, really just Amara.