“This is all your fault,” Redeyes accused.

  Skye turned to the hanging deepbat despite his aching neck. The cave had quieted; only Jay’s humming and the endless dripping behind could be heard. A sickly-green worm crawled over Skye’s foot, slipping into his pants. He didn’t shake it off.

  “Face reality. Stop running away when pressured.” Redeyes groomed itself. “The only thing terrifying here is your incompetence. At every step, there were better decisions you could have made, but you failed whenever it mattered.”

  “Leave him alone!” Jay shouted.

  “You should have been more disciplined at the library,” Redeyes sneered. “You’ve failed to identify the corrupt wardens despite your powers, failed to uncover the barons’ plans.”

  Skye’s breathing grew shallow. He grimaced, unable to swallow.

  “You couldn’t even convince the Medhars,” Redeyes continued, voice biting. “You lie, claiming you hate your bell, but deep down, you’re happy no one remembers you.”

  Sweat and blood mixed as Skye pulled, wishing he could hold himself.

  “They’d hate you if they did. Regret wasting so much time with you. You ignored their warnings, thinking yourself brighter. Braver. Better. Look where that’s gotten you.”

  Images of the battle in the cave flashed in Skye’s mind. He’d run, leaving them behind, too weak to help. To do anything but watch.

  “Admit it. You were relieved it wasn’t you on that stretcher. Happy they’d fought so you could escape. Made you feel important. Valuable. But you’re not. Do you even deserve to be alive?”

  “Shut it, ya heartless fiend!” Dee roared. “I’ll pluck yer wings and make an ugly rat outta ya!”

  “Hey!” Ritsy complained.

  “Why are you imagining this cortege of clowns?” Redeyes flapped his wings, adjusting his hold. “To validate your thoughts as though they were the wisdom of others? To suffer blame, so that it may lessen the guilt?”

  “Stop,” Skye rasped, too weak to be heard. “Please.”

  “I’m not saying anything,” Redeyes said. “Neither are the skeletons. I’m a bat and they’re long dead. We’re simply manifestations of your mind. Figments of your fears. Iterations of your insanity.”

  “I’m not insane,” Skye yelled. “I’m not imagining things! Go away!”

  Redeyes tilted his head. “You know why your parents haven’t come?”

  Skye’s heart lurched; this was the one topic he didn’t want to think about. If only he could plug his ears.

  “They don’t want you. They hate you,” Redeyes intoned. “That’s why they cursed you. So you’d vanish. So you’d never bother them again.”

  “That’s not true!” Skye grinded his teeth. He couldn’t know that. There had to be a better reason. “They must’ve… they forgot me.”

  “But you don’t believe that,” Redeyes said. “How can a mother forget her child? How can a father not miss his son?”

  “SHUT UP!” Skye screamed as thunder shook the cave, black bolts of lightning flashing throughout the cave. Redeyes fluttered into the shadows, squeaking.

  “I’m not mad,” Skye told himself. “I’m sane. I’m not. I only need to get out. Why is it not raining? There’s a storm and dark clouds. Where’s the sky?”

  “It’s all the way up there, lad,” Dee said. “Ya’ll never see it again, but that’s alright. Ya got us.”

  “I said shut it, all of you. I’m leaving.” Skye pulled away from the wall.

  “How?” Bob asked. “We’ve tried thousands of times and failed.”

  “I’m getting’ out of here. I’ll go home and see everyone,” Skye muttered, pushing despite his pain. “I’ll break the curse. Everyone’ll remember me.”

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  “I’ve an idea,” Jay piped, his bony face smiling. “Since you miss your friends, why not pretend we be them?”

  “Ohohoho! That’s brilliant!” Dee cackled. “Jay, ya’ll be Lyonel. Bob, yer Stenser. I’ll be Rierana, got it?”

  “That’s unfair,” Bob whined. “I want to be Rierana.”

  “Ya can’t be Rierana, ya thick-headed blob; she needs vigor. Charisma. Trust me, it’s best this way.”

  “No, it be not,” Jay whined. “Why do you get to decide? I don’t wanna be Lyonel too.”

  As they bickered, Skye wrestled with the chains. His legs trembled under his weight. The cuffs felt like molten rings searing into his wrists. Behind, out of sight, Redeyes settled, watching.

  “You’re not a victim, Skye. You never were,” Redeyes whispered. “Remember. Remember the crimes you committed to deserve the curse.”

  “My crimes?” Skye rasped. He could think of nothing he’d done to earn the bell’s ire. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “Then why does your dread grow like unruly weed?” Redeyes pressed. “Why are you always on the run. Searching for the sky, wanting to take flight?”

  “No, I…” Skye stammered. He had always believed the curse was unjust. This idea, that he deserved it, was a new shackle that tightened around his neck.

  “The bell was made to punish you,” Redeyes said. “That’s why no one else has heard of it. Even if you’ve forgotten your sins, your very being betrays them.”

  Skye bit his lip. No one deserved such abuse. He wanted to say so, but the words failed him. His arms were like shredded cords of robe, his shoulders sacks of ember. Gritting his teeth, he gripped the chains and pulled. And pulled. And pulled. Something cracked, but he didn’t pause. It was more important to focus on the pain than on getting answers. There weren’t any.

  “Alright, its settled,” Dee said. “Bob, yer Rierana. Jay, yer Stenser. I’ll be Lyonel. Take it, Bob.”

  “Hello there, gorgeous,” Bob simpered in a high-pitched falsetto. “I see your clothes are dirty. Need help getting a change?”

  “No!” Dee shouted, horrified.

  “Anatomically speakin’, if you cut off you hands, you could leave easily,” Jay offered. “Keep up, good man, you’re almost there!”

  “What are ya doin’, ya coalheads? That’s not what they’d say!” Dee shouted. “Supportive! Ya got to be supportive!”

  Skye ignored them, focusing on his wrists. Slippery with blood, he felt his hands slip through the cuffs. Slowly. Agonizingly. Till at last, he dropped forward, startling the watching insects.

  “I did it!” he gasped. “I finally did it! I’m free!”

  Staggering up, he dusted himself off and turned. Where he’d just been, a creature hunched. A thing with the eyes of a corpse, shaking, drenched in its own filth, twitching, muttering. Its skin was stained with bruises and bites. Its stench filled the air.

  Skye looked away, too disgusted, and headed toward the stairs.

  “Hey, where’re ya goin’?” Dee called.

  “Don’t ignore us!” Jay cried.

  “Don’t leave us alone!” Bob sniffed.

  Skye didn’t turn back. He slammed the door.

  Marching through the long tunnel, he realized he didn’t have to walk anymore. He floated forward, drifting through the winding stone corridors, until the walls opened into the grand, echoing space of the library.

  There, lights, bright and warm like the stars he always wished to sleep under, filled the sky. And among the precious pages, surrounded by stacks of leather and words, Chief Emery sat, reading, rambling, and raving in his research.

  Heart full of mischief, Skye toppled the warden’s inkwell, laughing at the old man’s hysteria, before soaring toward the city.

  “Hey, lad,” a voice like Dee’s called. Weird. Skye was miles away from the dungeon. “Yer bein’ rude.”

  “He don’t wanna speak to us no more,” Jay said sadly.

  “If that’s how you want it, so be it,” Bob said. Then they all fell silent.

  Skye didn’t care about the skeletons anymore; he’d returned home. He’d reached Troqua.

  He raced between its sky-high columns, leaping between the peaks of great stalagmites, brushing the tips of stalactites as he drifted by. People filled the streets, hundreds of thousands, all wearing smiles and dancing happily. Had it always been this bright? This clean and cheerful? Perhaps tonight was Green Eve. Oh, how he’d longed to attend this festival!

  He glided above Photrine District, its tree-nestled streets flowing with music and light like a heavenly river. Children ran through its alleys giggling and playing, wearing colorful costumes, and Skye descended to join them.

  A moment later, he arrived at the Medhars’ house. Ms. Jella stood at the door, scolding him for being late before ruffling his hair with a laugh. Inside, at the table, Rierana served her soup, hot and creamy, just as he remembered. When they asked why he looked on the verge of crying, he said it was too good to be true, and they all laughed.

  Later, walking with Rierana, they ran into Nakais and his gang, surrounding Lyonel like hungry hyenas. They fought, Skye and Nakais, exchanging kicks and blows, but neither swore nor cried in pain. It was a friendly contest, and they chuckled all the while.

  How he’d missed this inglorious coalson and their adversary. There had never been any malice in Nakais’s strike, nor cruelty. Unlike the hateful shackles biting his hands, or the ravenous insects eating him alive.

  Victorious, Skye collapsed into a puddle of mud, staring up through a narrow crack in the ceiling. He reached for the falling ray of light with a bloodied hand and seized it. And in that moment, the ground responded to his desire and rose, carrying him up, rising, transcending the city. The small hole widened until it became the sky, and Erillea welcomed him warmly.

  He stood there, among the clouds, staring at the world below as birds flew around and the breeze toyed with his hair. At last, he was free.

  In unbridled wonder, he stared at the green forests, white mountains, and blue seas, extending to the horizon. He grinned, arms outstretched, then breathed, inhaling the entire world into him.

  And in the darkness, he exhaled.

  **********