Kono said nothing. Her cousins fell silent as well, the three of them moving quietly down what seemed to be endless stairs. She only looked back once and could no longer see the opening. Kono wasn't certain if they were too far away to see it or if it had closed.
She didn't ask.
They rested twice before the opening below them looked any closer. They even slept in turns. Kono thought days had passed, but there was no good way to measure time. The opening below showed no day-and-night cycle. The well held a monotonous pattern of colorless stairs and dark walls. It didn't help when the walls' surface became damp and slick. She heard Ryson make small sounds of protest and fear, but he never slowed. His breathing steadied, even after the walls turned slimy. Kono thought she heard strange, distant laughter. She said nothing.
"How far is it across to the other side of the well?" Ryson suddenly asked.
Kono had kept that question buried in her own thoughts. Of course, Ryson had attacked it straight on.
"Miles," Callum replied. It was the kind of answer she had expected. Even Ryson only sighed. "We don't have much farther to go," he added. "I suggest we stop and rest, and then hurry to whatever waits there."
"That has the sound of someone who just wants this over," Ryson added.
"The magic is changing," Callum said. He sounded distant. Kono wanted to grab hold of him, but she dared not move. "It is not just that we are close to the end of the well ... I feel as if our arrival has triggered a change that we cannot control. I don't think the change has a purpose -- it does not feel good or bad. It just exists. We will have to learn to deal with it. Let's get down to the ground. I would rather fight on the ground rather than here, if it comes to it."
Kono agreed and started with what was probably a precipitous descent toward that green land somewhere below them. Neither Callum nor Ryson argued with her about it, which she did not take as a good sign. Kono thought she could hear the scrabbling of feet somewhere on the wall above them.
None of them made any comments about it. They hurried a bit more than they had lately. For Kono, it was just the hope that they would soon be done with something. She couldn't tell how far they had traveled, although she was nowhere that they'd gone through different realms. Would she ever return to our snow castle? Callum and Ryson would do their best to get her home, and it had nothing to do with duty -- or with the idea that they might want to be back where they belonged, too.
Then, between one stair and the next, she fell towards that green, which did not now appear to be grass. Moss. Water.
Sinking.
Before Kono could flail, Ryson grabbed her by the arm and dragged her upward. She almost fought him, trying frantically to find Callum in the murky water. Other things moved there, but she could not see them clearly. Some were too small to be Callum; others were too large.
They broke through the mossy surface, Kono frantic, only to find Callum in front of them, sitting on the moss and water.
"There you are," Callum said with a nod. "Good. We need to get out of the lake before something tries to eat us."
Ryson started to say something and then shook his head. "I can't argue with his logic."
Kono thought she might argue just to make things more normal. Fortunately, this journey had tired her so much that she couldn't bring herself to do something so useless. Kono wanted to get out of the water and rest for a while. Maybe even for a long while.
Callum took them both by the hand and pulled them out of the moss and muck. They were instantly moving with such speed that she had to close her eyes against the wind. She tried to blink things into focus and thought there might be a distant ridge of hills and clouds moving there.
She could neither see nor feel anything out of the ordinary here, so she stopped fighting to keep her eyes open. She trusted Callum to keep them safe and just hoped that Ryson kept calm now that they were out of the well.
Kono finally looked up at the sky, not at all surprised to find that dark opening gone. Trapped here? She would not allow it. Besides, she trusted that if magic brought them here, it could get them out again.
It seemed odd to depend so much on Callum, though. He had always been her quiet cousin. Except for his exceptional wardrobe and jewels, he might have gone unnoticed.
And Ryson? He had magic of his own – oh yes, she had known that for a while. Not Callum's type of magic, but nothing dark she could tell. It seemed linked to the chaotic magic of life itself.
And she had powers of her own. Those came with the throne, but they were alive in her blood and came down to her through many generations of rulers. Maybe it was time to revisit that ancient legend of how her family came to rule.
Kono thought it might be part of what was going on now, and she didn't trust that feeling. Despite everything, she didn't really trust magic.
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