Soulmaker

  Chapter 29

  Ash and Will found their way to the first cavern in dusky light. The warmth had seeped away and the pink lit ceiling faded to a stony grey. Ash ran his hand along the surface of the wall, its texture rough. They looked at each other in grim confirmation, both tasting dust at the back of their throats. Ash stopped short of entering his cavern. His heart beat appeared out of nowhere; reminding him to move forward, step by step.

  Inside, the once brightly decorated rooms lay ransacked. Ash saw his years of work destroyed and mouldering. Even the pile of books which had kept him occupied for hundreds of hours were scattered, burnt and dirty. The destruction didn’t concern him as much as the fear of finding his soulings dead in the wreckage. Clouds of mould spores billowed around them as they heaved furniture and art works from place to place. But no sign of a souling, alive or dead.

  “Over here,” Ash shouted, levering up the side wall of the hen house.

  Will scrambled over to hold it, dropping Edward Arthur for a better grip.

  Ash bent down for a closer look, sifting through layers of ragged cardboard and solidified chunks of wall. Finally he dragged out a sagging lump of plush. Will let the wall fall back and stared at the lump over Ash’s shoulder.

  “There’s no tear in it,” he observed, “Is it alive?”

  Ashden used his orb like eyes and clasped the ragged toy to his chest. “She is.” A smile escaped him, “And she belongs to Elanora. This is her pony, Peggy.”

  “That’s great,” Will said, “Now, can you take me to my old chamber?”

  “Of course, although you might not like what you find.”

  In his haste, Ashden pushed Peggy into the back pocket of his jeans, dislodging Eski who was dangling by a leg. She slipped quietly to the floor, the world lying sideways in her eyes. She couldn’t see them leave but could hear Ashden’s footsteps growing softer and softer behind her. The light dimmed and Eski felt a stirring in her heart. Panic. In the silence, a faint hum broke through. She focused on her sense of sight, making sense of the peripheral images she wasn’t capable yet of focusing on. And then she saw him. Edward Arthur. Head down and discarded on a pile of tattered cardboard, almost smiling with happiness to be with a friend.