As the two walked back the way they had come, Owen realized the silence between them was much different than the companionable silence that had brought them here. This one was hostile and metallic, but Owen didn't dare address it until they were out of the woods and free of Zabaria's domain.

They were soon clear of the trees and plodding along the river once more. Owen was about to suggest they take a break when Lira exploded.

"I can't believe her! What a huge waste of time! We came all the way here, risked everything, for help, and she sends us away with riddles!"

Owen let Lira seethe for a few minutes before offering her a drink of water. She took it reluctantly, mumbling her thanks.

"I don't think she was entirely unhelpful," he said carefully.

"No, the part about my soul being trapped in this violin was exactly what I wanted to hear," scoffed Lira. Owen looked over and saw fear blooming in her green eyes.

"We'll find a way to set you free," he said quietly. "I promise."

Lira flashed him a grateful look, though her hands still trembled by her sides.

"Do you think we should tell the others?" she asked.

Owen considered for a moment. Would it be better to consult the other kids? They had all been here longer than he had and would probably be more helpful to Lira. But was it too risky to confide in them? Zabaria's warning to be wary echoed in his head.

"I think we should wait, at least until we know more."

Lira nodded, content to accept his decision.

"Genzel might know something," mused Owen. "We could ask him."

"No!" said Lira at once.

Owen tried to quell his annoyance at her insistence to distrust the old man. "Why not?"

"Something's not right about him," she said. "We're here by force and he's-"

Owen rolled his eyes. "I don't think he's here by choice."

"No," conceded Lira. "But he's here for some other reason. If we don't tell the others, then that includes him too."

"For now," pointed out Owen.

With her jaw tight and her lips pursed, Lira nodded and pushed ahead.

###

By the time they reached their original camping ground, Owen was nearly bent in half with fatigue. His pack felt filled with rocks and his feet had gone numb from all the walking.

"How far do we think the lake is?" asked Lira, voicing his own thoughts. She too seemed ready to keel over.

"Dunno."

Genzel was nowhere to be seen and there were no fresh marks to indicate that he had been back this way.

"Shouldn't he be back by now?" Lira squinted in the direction Genzel had taken that morning.

"Maybe it's taking him longer because he has to catch two of them?" suggested Owen. He tried to ignore the uneasy feelings creeping through his limbs. Genzel's fine. He knows what he's doing. He knows this place. "He's bound to come back soon."

The two unrolled their mats and lay down. Owen pillowed his arm beneath his head and stared up at the unforgiving sky. Questions racing through his head made it hard for him to fall asleep. What if Genzel was hurt? How long should they wait? Should they go after him if he didn't come back?

Beside him, Lira's breathing evened out as she crossed the threshold of sleep. Owen closed his eyes, matched his breathing with hers, and despite his worries, let his consciousness fade to black. Minutes or hours later, Owen woke in a panic. Cold sweat drenched his back. He looked around wildly, momentarily confused why he was sitting on the bank of a purple river and not at home helping Ethan line up his trains. A hand on his shoulder made him jump again.

"It was just a dream." Lira's voice helped bring him back to reality and he gave a shaky laugh. Shouldn't it have been the other way around with him waking up at home after dreaming of this terrible place?"

"What time is it?" Owen asked before realizing it was a stupid question.

"Early morning," said Lira, pointing to the horizon.

"We slept through the night?" Owen's panic returned tenfold.

"I think we were both wiped out." But Lira was wringing her hands and her bottom lip was caught between her teeth. "Genzel still isn't back," she whispered.

Owen was up and on his feet in one fluid motion, packing his bag and hoisting it onto his shoulders. "We have to go after him." To his relief, Lira nodded. Her bag was already repacked and tied neatly next to her feet. They continued downriver at a pace even faster than the day before.

Maybe we should have left our bags behind, Owen thought. Unimpeded, they would be able to move more quickly. But they didn't know how long they would be searching for either.

The gloom of the spirit world, by now almost familiar, seemed sinister, weighing on them in a toxic smog. Like their journey upriver, the landscape was flat and unchanging, adding to Owen's frustration that they weren't getting anywhere. He pushed the pace faster, only relenting when Lira stumbled and nearly twisted an ankle.

Contrasting with their first journey, the river got steadily wider as they went, the boulders rising from the depths creating frothy sprays and swirling eddies.

"Do you hear that?" asked Lira. Owen paused and turned his head. Off in the distance was a faint roaring noise like that of traffic on the highway near his house, or...

"A waterfall," said Lira. Owen kept walking, more cautiously now. "This can't be good," Lira muttered.

"Why?"

"Waterfalls mean cliffs."

She turned out to be right. Ten minutes later, with their ears now filled with the sound of rushing water, Lira and Owen came to a stop at the edge of a cliff. Silvery mist rose up all around them, soaking into their clothes and hair, while the river fell in a plume of purple to crash several hundred feet below amongst spurs of jagged rock.

The waterfall mellowed out into a huge lake that lapped onto black sand shores. A sad looking island floated in the middle, and on the far banks, nearly lost in the mist, was a fringe of dark trees that extended into a forest.

"C'mon, let's start looking for a way down," said Lira turning to the left. "I just hope it doesn't involve rock climbing."

Owen wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for, it just looked like a large stretch of cliff surrounding a bowl in the ground. But after several minutes Lira motioned him over. What looked like an outcrop hid a series of rough-cut switchbacks in the cliff wall. The black rock glistened with water.

"That looks safe," remarked Owen.

"Just be glad there's no wind here." Lira leaned close to the wall as she stepped down, a hand gripping whatever spurs were available for balance. Owen followed more slowly, watching where Lira put her feet and how she held her body. He was surprised at how nimble she seemed. The only climbing he had ever done was at the quarry and it wasn't nearly half as high as this.

"Your face is turning purple," Lira said as they stepped back onto flat, safe ground. Owen let out the breath he had been holding for the last two minutes.

The sound of the waterfall faded as they walked to be replaced by the soft lapping of miniscule waves. The sand glittered beneath their feet, and when Owen reached down to touch it, it left a silky coat of powder on his palm. A long stretch of beach reached out ahead of them, meeting the trees where the lake started to curve.

"Genzel was here," said Lira. She was crouched near a set of imprints in the sand. Owen followed her pointed finger to a human footprint next to one that was distinctly horse-looking.

"So he caught one," said Owen, beginning to follow the tracks.

"Not for long." Lira pointed again. A few yards down the beach, the tracks turned from neat and orderly to a mess of prints and divoted sand. A long trough through the beach confirmed Owen's fears. "It looks like it dragged him."

Owen's heart began to beat faster. What if Genzel was significantly injured?

What if the kelpie had dragged him under the lake and he was lost forever?

______________________________________

Hi, everyone! Sorry for the long lag between updates. I was away on a much needed vacation, but my work inbox exploded upon my return, which has left me little time for writing. I'm hoping to change that around and get back to regular updates!

Anyway, Genzel is missing! What do you think happened? Let me know in the comments :) Thanks, as always, for reading!