The Brothers Lionheart

“But there are things you have to do, otherwise you’re not a human being but just a bit of filth. I’ve told you that before.”

“But suppose he’d realized who you were?” I said. “And they’d caught you?”

“Well, then they would have caught Lionheart and not a bit of filth,” said Jonathan.

Our fire burned down and the darkness sank over the mountains, first a brief dusk for a moment turning everything almost mild and friendly and soft, then a black, roaring darkness, in which you could hear nothing but Karma Falls and see no glimmer of light anywhere.

I crept as close to Jonathan as I could, and we sat there, leaning against the mountain wall, talking to each other in the dark. I wasn’t afraid, but a strange unease had come over me. We ought to sleep, Jonathan said, but I knew that I couldn’t sleep. I could hardly speak either, because of that feeling of anxiety, which had nothing to do with the dark, but something else, I didn’t know what. And yet Jonathan was there beside me.

There was a flash of lightning and then a crash of thunder, the sound of booming against the mountain walls, and then it came over us, a storm beyond all imagination, the thunder rolling over the mountains with a roar that drowned even the sound of Karma Falls, and flashes of lightning coming one after another. Sometimes the lights flared up and the next moment it was darker than ever; it was as if a night from ancient times had fallen over us.

And then there was another flash of lightning, more terrible than any of the others, flaring up and throwing its light over everything.

And then, in that light, I saw Katla. I saw Katla.

Chapter 13

Yes, I saw Katla, but I don’t know what happened next. I just sank into the black depths and didn’t wake up until the thunderstorm had passed and light was already beginning to appear behind the mountain peaks. I was lying with my head in Jonathan’s lap, and terror washed over me as soon as I remembered---there, far away on the other side of the river, was where Katla had stood on a cliff, high up above Karma Falls.