Chapter Two: The Lichway

Chapter Two - The Lichway

The next morning, Aodhan woke to the sensation of being strangled. Spluttering for a moment, he pulled at whatever was on him and with a snap, the dragon pendant went bouncing across the blankets. Aodhan frowned, holding the broken piece of leather in his fist. The charm must have gotten tangled around him while he slept. With a sigh, Aodhan set the pendant and broken string on the bedside table, vowing to fix it later. For the moment, he had the rest of a pig sty waiting on him. He had already slept too late; the sun had reached its zenith an hour ago.

He rushed to get ready and left the house with only a biscuit for breakfast. His mother, hanging his washed clothes from last night up to dry in the yard, called after him, "What are you in a hurry for, child? Your uncle isn't home. He won't know you're late, and if he has anything to say about it, I'll take care of him."

Aodhan didn't stop, only calling out a vague goodbye before dashing down the forest path. His rush to leave had less to do with his obligations and more to do with a particularly bewitching redhead that would be trotting through the town gleefully to deliver cakes to some of the older residents on behalf of her mother any minute now. Aodhan reached the pitted road unhindered and ducked into the bushes surrounding his uncle's property. From there, he had a clear view of the main street, which was crowded with merchants, women shopping for produce, and men looking to sell livestock or buy something for their sweethearts.

As he squatted there, gaze intently searching for a hint of red, he suddenly smelled dark earth after rain and frowned, fleetingly wondering why it smelled like rain when the night had been dry, but this thought was swept from his head immediately. Mirna had appeared. Aodhan craned his neck above the bushes to get a better look and sighed dreamily.

Lovely as always, the girl's carrot-colored hair was bound tightly in a plentiful braid, smiling cheeks slightly red as she skipped from house to house. Today her dress was light blue, her shawl the purest white. She looked to Aodhan to be as gorgeous as the mortal woman Étaín who had been married to Midir of the Tuatha de Dannan.

Aodhan was leaning over the bushes, hanging onto a tree for balance, when the dirt-after-rain smell intensified to an almost dizzying degree, making Aodhan's head swim with the strangely addictive scent. Fuzzy-headed, Aodhan didn't hear the leaves crunching behind him before an enormous force suddenly kicked his rear end, sending the boy tumbling out of the bushes and down a small hill. Curled into a ball to protect his head, Aodhan rolled right into the street and came to a stop against a farmer's cart piled high with hay and bags of chicken feed. Groaning, Aodhan slowly uncurled and checked himself over for injuries.

He was in the middle of rolling up his pantleg to check the aching of his calf when a shadow fell over him, blocking out the sun. Dazed, he looked up only to feel his cheeks start to burn. Mirna stood over him with a concerned frown. Aodhan realized that the beautiful girl he admired had just watched him roll inelegantly down a hill like some kind of demonic snowball and cursed in his head. But, rather than laugh at him outright, she lowered herself gracefully to her knees beside him.

Her soft-looking mouth moved and Aodhan, entranced, didn't hear a word she said. She had to repeat herself twice before he shook himself out of his trance.

"Are you alright?" Her bright blue eyes glittered, a slight wrinkle between her brows.

Aodhan nodded dumbly and scooted back unconsciously, feeling that the aura of light and warmth around this girl was too bright for him to sully it. Still frowning, Mirna looked at Aodhan's leg, which was covered in fresh blood - damn his delicate flesh, tearing so easily - and rummaged around in the basket at her side before pulling out a handkerchief and handing it to him. Aodhan was careful not to touch her fingers as he accepted it, the flush spreading to his ears and down his neck.

Wiping away the blood, Aodhan got a clear look at the injury and grimaced. He must have hit a rock on the way down, but the wound was shaped funny. It looked like someone had stamped a spiral into the soft flesh on the back of his knee. Aodhan clearly remembered being curled up as he rolled down - so how did he manage to get an injury in such a place? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mirna turn her head away the red on her cheeks deepening, and he mentally cursed. Of course, the wound was too hideous for a lady to see - the amount of blood alone was probably making her dizzy, the sight of his torn skin could only make her sick. Aodhan hurriedly pulled down his pantleg and stood up, stuffing the blood-soaked handkerchief into his sleeve. He would wash it, but the delicate white cloth was ruined, and he couldn't imagine having the gall to return it in such a state.

"Thank you," Aodhan whispered, backing up a few steps. Mirna stood gracefully and nodded with a sweet smile.

"Take more care when you're going down hills. It's easy to lose your footing."

A blush of shame crept up Aodhan's neck. The maiden was chastising him, jokingly of course, but he still felt like an idiot. Nodding, he turned to leave before he began to cry tears of blood, but a small hand landed on his arm.

"Please wait," she said, a note of urgency in her voice that made Aodhan pause. "Aren't you the boy who - the one who crossed the -" she paused, biting her pink lips. Dazed, Aodhan watched this scene, mouth suddenly very dry.

A painful sting, starting from the wound behind his knee, suddenly crawled along his flesh, like there were thorns sprouting in his veins. Aodhan groaned and nearly toppled over, the muscles in his leg turning to mush.

Startled, Mirna went forward to steady him, but hesitated before touching his skin, like there was a barrier around him she couldn't cross. Aodhan understood. A proper woman like Mirna wouldn't dare to go around touching random men as she pleased. This thought forced strength into Aodhan, and through sheer will, he stayed standing. The thick, iron scent of his own blood rose up, suffocating him. The wound must have been more severe than he thought.

With this, Aodhan could no longer be polite. He stumbled away without a backward glance and somehow made it back to his uncle's house, collapsing only once he passed through the door. He peeled the blood-soaked trousers off completely, leaving only his shirt and undergarments, gathered up some spare cloth and a bowl of water. He carefully cleaned the wound until the water was dyed completely red and wrapped some bandages around the limb, still puzzling over the sheer oddity of the scar.

Scratching his head, Aodhan decided it was best not to dwell on these things for too long and put his pants back on, thankful that the material was dark enough to hide the ghastly bloodstain. He opened the door to head around towards the pig sty but halted, becoming as stiff as a piece of dead wood. Pacing in front of the stoop before his uncle's house was Mirna. Her head shot up at the noise and they stared at each other for a moment, one party shocked to the point of being mute, the other puzzled about why he had stopped breathing.

"I'm sorry," Mirna said softly. "I'm sure you don't like to be reminded of that time. . ."

Time? What time? Reminded of what now?

Aodhan's mind was completely blank. There had been too many shocks in a row and his thoughts were repeatedly hitting a wall like a ram locked in a dungeon. What had she been saying before he ran away?

Thankfully, Mirna cleared up his confusion with her apology. "Everyone in the village says you weren't the same after you came back. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."

Aodhan's whole body went cold as he realized what she meant by being the 'one who crossed.' There was only one event she could have been talking about.

Suddenly, despite how pretty and contrite Mirna looked, Aodhan wanted nothing more than to slam the door in her face and hide for the rest of the day. He forced himself to clear his throat. "It's fine."

The girl dug the tip of her boot into the dirt, thinking hard. "Then. . .could you. . ." she trailed off, unable to meet his eyes.

Aodhan found this to be particularly charming and smiled unconsciously. "Could I what?"

She bit her lips, blue eyes suddenly glossy with tears. "I wouldn't ask, except I really don't know what to do. And you're the only person that's - that's crossed the lichway and come back sane so I just hoped-" she stopped, hiccupped, and turned away in shame. "Never mind. It was incredibly rude of me to even ask. I'll take my leave."

Truthfully, the moment she said the word 'lichway' Aodhan's spine had stiffened up so much he was surprised it hadn't cracked, but seeing this pathetic appearance, his manly instincts were aroused, and he hopped down the stoop to catch up with her.

"Wait!" He caught her shoulder and gently turned her to face him. "Tell me what's wrong before running off."

Her lips trembled and abruptly, she sat down on the grass, tears finally spilling over her lower lashes to douse her cheeks. Aodhan kneeled next to her to listen to her story.

As it turned out, Mirna had a necklace she favored. She wouldn't say much about it except that it was very precious, and she wore it every day. However, she had somehow incurred the wrath of a few of the other girls in the village and they stole it from her. She confessed that she didn't know why the other girls were so angry with her, but in his heart Aodhan knew it was probably because Mirna was so much prettier than them that she had unconsciously sparked their jealousy.

Apparently, just destroying the necklace wouldn't have been cruel enough. They had to ensure that there was no hope of it ever being repaired, and so had thrown it into the lichway.

The lichway was a place for the dead to cross between worlds - how could sweet, delicate Mirna dare to go in and get it? Everyone that had ever stepped even a toe into the lichway was forever stuck between worlds, left with no option but to continue into the forest of the sidhe or become ghosts themselves. Everyone, except Aodhan.

No one could really figure out why he was able to escape. Most assumed it was because he had been so young, only twelve, when he stumbled into the lichway. The sidhe had probably thought him too insignificant, and thus allowed him to cross back over.

But Aodhan knew They weren't that merciful. His safe return had come at a price.

Mirna couldn't have known this. She only knew he was the boy that crossed the lichway and hoped he could help her get the necklace back.

As she looked up at him with her eyes rimmed in red, sniffling piteously, Aodhan couldn't outright refuse her. He scratched at his nose idly, trying to figure out how to say "hell no" in a nice way. Every bone in his body was telling him to push this girl away from him, run home without looking back, and hide under the covers until he was old and gray.

He couldn't do it. The word "no" trembled at the tip of his tongue, but no matter how he tried, one look at those tear-stained cheeks and the word stopped in his throat, choking him. What kind of man would he be if he didn't even take a look? Perhaps the situation wasn't as dire as it seemed. After all, most people were too afraid to get within a league of the lichway. It might not have crossed the boundary. With a heavy heart, Aodhan inclined his head, sighing deeply.

Mirna's downtrodden expression immediately brightened like a sunflower glimpsing the dawn. She rushed forward and wrapped him in her arms.

"Thank you so much! I don't know how I'll ever repay you."

Uncomfortable, Aodhan sidled away. She smelled like dandelions and her body was soft - these two things were enough to make Aodhan feel like his entire body was burning, so he hurried to stand up.

"We should go before it gets dark," he said, offering a hand to help her up. Together, they circumvented the village and soon entered a huge, green field that spread over small dips and hills for quite a distance before being cut off by a distant line of dark trees that marked the beginning of the sidhe's territory. It wasn't visible now, but the lichway should be somewhere along the forest's edge, stretching out like a large welcome mat. People said that no matter where you approached the forest from, the lichway would appear in your path, so Aodhan luckily didn't have to rely on his memory to find it. Most of his memories of that time were blurred by fear and, he suspected, some sort of magic. It was why, no matter how much he was questioned, Aodhan couldn't recall exactly what he had seen in that forest. He had only a vague impression of voices and distorted figures that were too horribly misshapen to be human.

Hand in hand to avoid losing their footing, they hurried out into the field, not out of any excitement for their destination, but the sun was quickly lowering in the sky and both knew that once the moon showed her face, it would become nearly impossible to resist the pull of the lichway and they would both be lost forever. Aodhan knew that even if he was lucky enough to escape once, he had no hope of doing it twice.

It wasn't long before the opening of the lichway appeared, bounded by thick, unnatural fog. It didn't look particularly sinister upon first glance. It was two rows of jagged, unevenly spaced, white stones that stretched into the forest. To some, it might not even look very strange, except for the its unexplainable symmetry and the way the white of the stones looked like bones of long-dead beasts sticking out of the ground. The distance between the two rows was no more than half Aodhan's height.

The two slowed as they neared it. Aodhan pulled Mirna to a stop. "I'll go over and look for it. You should stay here. What does it look like?"

Mirna blinked owlishly at him, as if this was a peculiar question. "The pendant is green. It's on a leather cord. It might be hard to spot in the grass. Are you sure I shouldn't come with you?"

Aodhan shook his head. Despite knowing he would feel better with another person alongside him, he couldn't put Mirna in that kind of danger. Mirna frowned, but sat down to wait for him.

A chill breeze rolled over the field, penetrating Aodhan's clothes like thousands of cold fingers, caressing his skin. Aodhan clenched his teeth and ignored it, but as he neared the lichway, the fog thickened around him and a sound like whispering began to tickle his ears, but he couldn't tell if it was the wind in the trees, or actual voices. By the time he was near enough to see the pitted surface of the stones, he was trembling so hard he was surprised he hadn't bitten off his own tongue.

He walked slowly around either side of the lichway's entrance, squinting at the ground. He was considering getting on his hands and knees to search more carefully when a voice very close behind him made him jump and let out an embarrassing gasp.

"There! There it is, I see it!" Mirna yelled, pointing.

"Didn't I tell you to wait over there?" Aodhan asked, forgetting to be gentle in his speech. The girl had just stolen ten years of his life with the fright she gave him, so he felt it was well deserved.

She pouted. "How am I supposed to just stand around and watch while you're in danger? There's safety in numbers, you know. And besides, I really did see it."

Aodhan sighed. "Where?"

She pointed and Aodhan's heart sank. Those girls from the village had good aim. The necklace was sitting right in the middle of the lichway, a smudge of dark green against the dead, yellowish grass inside. Aodhan hadn't seen it earlier because he was trying to avoid looking within, fearing that it really was in there and he would have to tell Mirna they had wasted a trip because there's no way he was setting foot in there again.

Aodhan sighed, staring at the pendant, obscured by fog, but the more he looked the more he felt there was something familiar about it. He couldn't tell from so far away, though.

Mirna shook his shoulder. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

"Huh?"

She gave him a look like he was acting strangely. "Aren't you going to go in and get it?"

Aodhan was dumbfounded. Did she think he was immune to the lichway? He cleared his throat. "Are you perhaps unfamiliar with how the lichway works? It would be suicide to go in there. I'm afraid there's no hope of retrieving your necklace. I'm sorry."

He bowed his head, truly lamenting his inability to help. Expecting the girl to become angry with him, Aodhan hunched his shoulders, preparing for her to scold him, or even hit him. The blows never came. Only a cold snort. Aodhan kept his gaze on the ground but squinted his eyes in confusion.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Mirna's skirts swish about as she backed up to stand behind him. Then, with a force that felt like seven full grown men charging at him, Aodhan was suddenly airborne!

He went sailing for over twenty feet before feeling his stomach drop as he fell back to earth, landing in a tangle of arms and legs. He groaned, mind blank for several seconds before his breath caught in his chest and all the blood rushed out of his face, leaving his skin whiter than the fog around him.

The first thing he saw after opening his eyes was the necklace, lying innocently right under his nose. But it didn't belong to Mirna. It was his necklace. The dragon lay half entangled in the yellow grass; the leather cord was somehow repaired as if it had never been broken in the first place.

Strangely shaped shadows flickered at the edges of his sight. Aodhan scrambled to his feet without touching the necklace, feeling that touching it was worse than touching a plague victim.

The ghostly figures could only be seen indirectly. Looking at them head on was just like looking through mist. Their whispers rose up around him in a frenzy, agitated by his sudden arrival, but they had no interest in bothering Aodhan, who swallowed the lump in his throat as though it was clay and trembled in place, an unconscious whimper declaring his fear.

The energy of the lichway hummed in response to his presence, as if greeting an old friend.

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