Moonscript Excerpt

Today, I thought that I would share an excerpt from my current work-in-progress with you all. It is called Moonscript. If you would like to learn more about it, you can check out this interview I did over at the lovely Anne Elisabeth Stengl's blog.
In this excerpt, my main character, 14-year old Tellie, is escaping from a prison through the sewer passages with her young friend Kelm, and the mysterious prisoner they have rescued, Errance.  Enjoy.

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As they continued on, they turned a corner and brilliant white burst in front of Tellie’s vision. She gasped again, and covered her eyes. Spots squirmed under her eyelids.

She heard Errance swear softly, but she was too full of relief and exhaustion to say anything.

“Daylight,” Kelm breathed. “It’s daylight.”

Before them, down a steeper decline, was the exit of the passage. It was small and filled almost to the top with water, but light showed through and reflected upon the water into the darkness. They stumbled down towards it.

But the current of the water had become extremely strong, and all three of them struggled to stay on their feet. Twenty paces away from the exit. Fifteen.

And then Tellie suddenly realized that the speed of the water was getting swifter because it was going into a river.

“Errance!” she gasped. “I can’t swim!”
Then the current sucked her off her feet. Her body was pulled out the exit, bringing her shoulder into sharp contact with a wall. She was in the river, shards of light slashing across her vision. Thrashing her arms and legs against the raging water, she searched for the surface. Bubbles exploded in front of her eyes, and she gasped, drawing in water. Choking, she fought to find air. Her hand broke the surface, but a current of the river sucked her down deeper. Needles began to prick behind her eyes. Her head throbbed.

Ayahwei! she silently screamed. Please! Please!

Suddenly, her hair was pulled taunt and her body was jerked back against the current. An arm clamped around her waist, and she felt herself surge to the top. Her head burst out of the water, and she instantly drew in shrill gasps of air.

Next thing she knew, the upper half of her body was sprawled over the thick branch of a tree, and she was violently choking up water. Her legs were still in the river being pulled hard, but she was no longer at the mercy of it. She looked around her, squinting at the harsh beauty of daylight. She was on the branch of a tree that had fallen into the river. Errance was slumped over a branch near her, and Kelm was closet to the bank. The bank rose steeply upon either side of the water, and trees hung precariously out over it, their roots often sticking out of the soil. To her left, the canyon side rose up higher then she could see and blended into a mountain range. The bank Kelm was near was much lower, and a forest spread out from it as far as she could see.

She stared at Errance, who hadn’t moved. His back was turned away from her, his dark hair was spread out over his glistening skin. But in between the strands of his hair, she could see raw stripes of lacerated flesh.

“Errance?” she croaked. He…he was the one that had pulled her out of the river. “Are you alive?”

He shifted his arm ever so slightly across the log.

“I’m alive, if you’re interested,” Kelm called. He pulled himself up on to the top of the log with several grunts. “I thought I was a goner, but then I smacked into this tree.” He crawled along the top of the trunk down to where she was and extended a hand.

She grabbed it and was able to scramble up out of the water. They started up the bank on their hands and knees and had reached the ground, before Tellie realized that Errance still hadn’t moved. “Errance? Are you coming?” she called.

Over the roar of the river, she couldn’t hear him, but she saw his arms strain and he pulled himself up onto the trunk.

Satisfied, Tellie turned and looked into the forest. It was far thicker then Shadowshade, and the leaves were broad and flat, cutting out any view of the sky. Vines and bushes choked the earth and trees. She squinted up at the sky above them and saw that the sun hovered directly overhead. It was mid-day. How long had it been since she had entered Tertorem? A few days? A week? Forever?

Kelm was beside her, and she unexpectedly heard him whisper the exact same swear word Errance had used earlier. Blood rushing up into her face, she turned on him with every intention of giving him a severe tongue lashing.

But when she turned, she saw Errance, and all words failed her.

He stood upon the bank, swaying, his face tilted as he stared at the sky and the trees, his face filled with undisguised wonder and uncertainty, water shining off his skin and hair like silk. In many ways it should have been a beautiful picture. But that was all ruined by the sight of his affliction.

The wounds were similar to those Tellie had seen as scars, but these were fresh and that made them all the more horrible. But upon his chest was something she had not seen before. Something that must have come at the hand of the Voice.

Burnt black upon his chest were the words Property Of, and below it was a strange symbol; a black ball clasped by a skeletal hand, a symbol she could only assume meant His Darkness. The words were emblazoned with enflamed flesh, both yellow and red.

He was cradling his right arm, which twisted in such a cruel manner that Tellie knew it was broken. An arm that had grabbed either her hair or her waist, saving her life.

Shakily, she leaned against a tree, her legs finding it hard to support her. How could anyone mark a person like an…an animal?

Errance’s gaze flicked down to them abruptly as if he had felt their stares on him, and his face went inexplicably cold. He started forward into the trees. “Come,” he said, in an emotionless tone.“They’re looking for us by now.”