Ico looked back, then followed the girl’s eyes. He looked down at the lustrous green grass below and saw a line of square stones. It’s a graveyard.
Ico took Yorda’s hand. “Is this where the queen took you that night? The underground gallery?”
Yorda nodded and took a step in front of him, looking down at the gravestones lined up in the sun.
“That means we should be able to get back into the castle from here,” Ico said, thinking out loud. He went down the stone stairs. The grass felt good beneath his feet. He walked through the graveyard, trying to read the inscriptions on the stones, but the weather had worn them all away. He touched one. Even the corners of the stones were now rounded. Maybe they were already old when Yorda was here before-the night the queen summoned her below.
Despite what must have been years without care, the grass was uniformly short and not a single blade was out of place. The turf was soft, its bright green contrasting with the darker moss growing on the stones.
It was like time had stopped, preserving the stones, keeping the grass fresh-
Something pricked at the back of Ico’s mind, and then the realization came. The visions of Yorda’s past were all from long ago. Of course! Why didn’t I think of that sooner? The emperor that came here with Ozuma to fight the queen had been the fifth emperor of Zagrenda-Sol. He was pretty sure that the emperor in the capital now was the eighteenth.
For that much time to pass, Yorda must have spent ten or even twenty lifetimes trapped here in the castle-and she was still a girl.
Had the queen placed another enchantment on the castle? The Castle in the Mist was separated from the world he knew, and not just by geography. This was a different world entirely.
Ico rubbed his own arms to stop himself from shivering. Yorda was crouching by one of the gravestones, just as Ico had moments before, trying to read the markings. Or maybe that was the grave that had slid to the side, revealing the stairs? If Yorda touched it, would the gravestone move? For a moment, Ico held his breath, but the stone showed no inclination toward motion. Apparently, it took a queen to open that door.
Ico explored, eventually discovering the stairs and corridor that the chief handmaiden had taken when she brought Yorda here. At the top of the stairs, the wall had collapsed, preventing him from going any farther. The great mountain of gray rubble here didn’t look like something he could blast away, either.
He returned to the graveyard. The walls of the castle rose on all four sides here. The windows were all too high for him to reach. Then he noticed double doors standing in a shadowed corner of the graveyard. The doors, with an arched façade that made Ico think of a cathedral, seemed to lead to a different section of the castle.
Wherever the doors led, he hadn’t been through there before, which meant it wasn’t part of the castle Yorda had shown him in the visions. He called out to her, waving toward the doors. “Looks like some kind of hall. Does that go back into the main castle?”
Yorda only stared at him with a sad look in her eyes.
Ico shrugged. “Well, let’s explore it anyway. It’s not like we have many other choices.”
He took Yorda’s hand and began to walk, when suddenly he felt his hair stand on end. The air around him had grown suddenly colder and darker, even though the sun was shining above.
Then he saw them: dark swirling pools opening, one on the grass, one between the gravestones, one on the landing atop the stairs. They boiled and seethed, and a horned shadow-creature with long, sharp claws emerged before them. He spotted another with wings flying over the stones.
“Run!” Ico shouted. He pulled on Yorda’s hand and made for the doors leading to the hall. He beat back one of the creatures that rose up in their way with his stick. It dissolved instantly, leaving two eyes floating in space. Ico knew it would be back soon.
“Don’t stop!” he shouted. “We have to get through those doors!”
The creatures were on all sides of them now. Yorda swung her free arm, batting at the winged creatures thronging around her head.
Even more creatures emerged from the black pool on the landing behind her. They came down the stairs, jerking strangely, as if walking on tiptoe, one after another.
Yorda pulled away from Ico and ran in a crazed circle to evade the creatures, then her knee connected with a gravestone and she fell sprawling across the grass. The creatures swarmed on top of her, circling as though they were performing a macabre celebratory dance.
“Get away!” Ico growled through clenched teeth. “Don’t touch her!” He swung his stick and roared wildly, and when that didn’t seem like enough, he swung his arms and kicked with his legs, trying to push the monsters away. “Back!” he shouted. “Back to the shadows!”
Ico knocked away another of the creatures trying to seize Yorda, then picked her up by the sleeve of her dress. “Run!”
A single large creature slid in front of them as they made for the doors. Its clawed arms hung down by its side, and it leaned forward, peering at Ico. Its eyes flared.
Why do you protect the girl? It was her mistake that made us what we are.
The creature’s shoulders heaved, as though it were gasping in pain, and its eyes shone with the cold light of winter stars.
From this close, Ico could see what looked like an expression in the swirling dark mists-he saw pain, misery, and anger. But anger toward whom?
You are of our blood.
The creature gestured with its horns toward Ico, as if to prove his point.
Our lives were given to the castle so that the girl could live. Now, we will take her as payment for what we have surrendered.
Ico blinked, not comprehending.
“What?” he said out loud.
His grip on Yorda’s sleeve loosened. She fell to her knees, slumping down on the grass. The creatures advanced, tightening in a ring around them.
Ico took a half step backward, and the shadow-creature in front of him slowly shook its head.
Flee, young Sacrifice. Leave this castle while you still enjoy the book’s protection. We are bound to this girl by a curse that can never be broken. The queen tortures us as we wander her castle, so we will take the girl she wants and keep her to ourselves. It is justice, and justice is eternal. This is not something you can change, young Sacrifice.
Ico took another step backward, eyes still fixed on the creature. He tripped and fell to the grass. Another creature picked Yorda up and lifted her across its shoulder.
The creature turned and walked off, making for the black pool that had formed between the gravestones. Yorda’s arms hung limply down the creature’s back, swaying as it walked.
Young Sacrifice. Enjoy your own fortune, and pity us.
As the creature before him spoke into Ico’s mind, the one carrying Yorda had begun to sink into the pool. It was already down to its waist.
Ico sat helpless, watching her go. He didn’t know why he wasn’t jumping up to save her. He felt almost…sleepy.
The creature nodded to him. There. That’s right. Now leave.
At that moment, the Mark on Ico’s chest began to glow, a silvery light coursing along the complex pattern. It was a jolt of energy, snapping Ico out of the creature’s spell. “I’m not leaving!”
Ico rolled to the side and sprang to his feet, dashing toward the pool. He reached in, getting his arms around Yorda’s waist, feeling her weight in his hands. Summoning all his strength, he yanked her out of the pool so hard he nearly fell over on his back. Yorda seemed dazed, asleep with eyes open and unfocused. Ico shook her shoulders, and her wispy hair swirled in the air.
“We have to run! Through those doors!”
He gave Yorda a push on the back, then retrieved his stick and took a swing at the creatures writhing around them.