14. || canary in a coal mine.

As admirable as the woman's kindness was, it wasn't doing none of them no good. Even if they could get Béla to the surface, no amount of water from the spring would heal his wounds and a merciful death would never come within these woods that they could not leave. The only end River knew for him was through the bloodmarked rite of the ancients. And demon or not, they weren't exactly kind in their reaping.

River stepped to the side of Béla and raised the lantern to look down the empty chamber ahead. "Hey uh, Nurse," they said over their shoulder. "Can I steal ya for a sec?"

Patting Béla's hand, the woman stood up and gave River a shifty look like she was afraid to lock eyes too long. Still, she followed behind to the crosscut while River made sure to keep to the far left, staying out of Béla's earshot.

Piles of slate and coal spilled out of an upturned mine car, blocking a portion of the tracks that led back to the main heading where the initial blast had occurred. As River placed the lantern on top of the car, the dim yellow glow washed over the woman. Coal dust caked her face black, brightening her eyes, but she didn't stay looking too long. Instead, she dipped her head and crossed her arms that were wet with gore, fingers all stained red, but not fresh red, more faded like the color of the crick; old blood that would never dry.

As River stepped closer to speak, she backed away. And that hurt a little, but they understood and toed it back to give her space.

"I uh, just wanted to say I'm much obliged for your kindness towards my friend. I'm sure wrappin' your head round all this ain't easy." A guttural groan rolled through the tunnel, but its source was not the eviscerated man lying along the floor a couple yards away. The woman's eyes followed the slick black shine of a coal vein to the roof above them. "But uh, if you're still plannin' to ditch that garnet, do it quick and let's go."

"I'm not so sure I should now. It led me here." The woman toyed with her ring, straightening it out on her finger. "And I feel like it wants me to go deeper yet."

"Right..." River bit their lip as they tried to catch the woman's fleeting eyes. "But maybe we oughta not listen to a cursed ring three hundred feet below ground in an abandoned mine."

"It led me to Béla."

"Again, much obliged, but it's best we say our goodbyes and git goin'."

"We can't just leave him, River."

"Can't leave him? He's a ghost."

Her coal stained brows knotted with a glare. "He's in pain."

"He's a damn haunt. Some kinda undead spirit." River stepped closer, trying to keep their voice low. "And if that cursed ring led ya to him, he could be demon for all we know."

"Like you?"

Her accusation hung in the air as her eyes shifted over River like she was seeing them for the first time again, searching for an answer that would never come because they didn't know what the hell they were. Just cursed. And that was bad enough.

"You scared of me now, Boots?"

She was quiet for a second as she continued to look them over. "Not in the way I should be."

"Well, think what ya want," River scoffed. "Tell yourself whatever ya need in order to believe. But I for sure ain't dead. Nor am I tryin' to be. I outran death in this mine twice before and I don't need her thinkin' thrice be a charm." Grabbing the lantern from the car, River started to turn back. "So unless you're lookin' to—"

"Shh." The woman's eyes sharpened as she looked around. "Did you hear that?"

"The mountain warning us with her snarl? Aye, we need to git—"

Clasping a hand over River's mouth, the woman no longer seemed too worried about getting too close or looking too long in their eyes. As she held them there in silence, the tightness in River's shoulders released and their pounding heart slowed. And maybe she felt it too because she lowered her hand to theirs and slipped her fingers around the metal handle of the lantern. Creeping over the piles of debris, she hugged the walls to keep out of the water-filled gangway. And before River could utter another warning, they heard it too. Farther down the tunnel, the sweet little chirp of a songbird whistled against the cold coal chamber.

As they ventured deeper, its song grew louder, leading them off the main tunnel, down a narrow cut and into a room where the coal vein had never been touched by picks. River, for the life of them, couldn't remember it. And they would've. When Vera cut their hair off and first sent them to the mine, they started off as a spragger and knew every dip and divot in the gangway.

But its tracks had ended a hundred yards back, same with the busted timber props. Water trickled down over and through the jagged rock walls, pooling in the center of the room, either inches deep or leagues. A quiet trill called out from the far corner and the woman started forward, but River held her back.

"We don't know how deep it is. Just hold the lantern up for me."

She did so without argument as River stepped along the edge of the pool and carefully dipped their toe to find its bottom. Feeling solid pressure just a couple inches down, they sloshed across quickly to where the chirping was coming from. Covered in black dust and muck, Bélas little canary flapped frantically without flight along the corner of the mine.

"All right, c'mere..." Kneeling down, they scooped the bird up, whistling its song back to it to keep it calm as they carried it across the pool where the woman waited. But as River opened their hands and held it up to the light, they both saw that it suffered more than just a soggy broken wing. Tipping just a little too far off to the side, its head hung upside down, broken at the neck.

Still, the canary sang its little song and chirped with gratitude as the woman stroked its chest with doleful curiosity. "Do you think it broke its neck trying to fly out of here?"

Glancing down the narrow tunnel, River shook their head. "Not likely." They tucked the bird into their breast pocket and took the lantern from the woman. Water splashed up around their ankles as they walked to the back of the room through the pool and raised the lantern to the walls. And the longer River looked, the more they started to see. Etched into the slate, where iron red rivulets dripped down, were all sorts of symbols; some River recognized and some they'd never seen, but water filtered through all of them, collecting in the pool at their feet.

"River, what is..." As the woman's question trailed off, it took them a second too long to realize she wasn't talking about the sigils, but instead something in the water.

"Boots, wait!"

Water splashed up River's legs as the woman fell in headfirst, reaching for something below and disappearing completely into the pool before them. River rushed to the center and dropped to their knees, pounding at the shallow bottom where she had fallen through. Jagged slate ripped the meat of their palms and cut under their fingernails as they tore at the rock solid floor she had somehow slipped beyond. For the first time in a long time, they cursed the ancients, slapping at the water in vain, but its wards did not allow them to pass. With their back to the wall, they sunk to the floor while the little yellow bird in their pocket continued to sing.

But just as fast as the pool had swallowed the woman, it spat her out. Bursting through the surface, she emerged slick with the iron red sediment, gasping for air. River sprung forward, knees digging into the rock floor as they caught aholt her hand, pulling her up over the edge until their back hit the wall and she collapsed against their chest.

River swept her hair away from her face as she choked out the last bit of water. Heaving for breaths, her chest rose and fell with theirs and her cold fingers tightened around the strap of their suspenders. Her other arm she kept cradled to her stomach where something hard pushed against their own.

"Didn't ya ever hear curiosity leads to trouble?" River mumbled into her wet hair and they felt her cheek twitch with a smile against their chest. "Are ya all right?"

"I think so."

She seemed in no hurry to move so River didn't see any reason to let go. But she was soaked to the bone and the longer they sat, the quicker the cold would start settling in if they didn't get her up and moving.

"Is your arm all right?"

River started reaching to check, but the woman just laughed. Or tried to. It came out more like a cough with a smile as she sat up and held out what had been pressing between them.

Pushing up to sit, River took from her hand a mason jar and a rush of heat swept through them. "Land sakes alive..." They could barely form the words as they turned it over in their hands.

River had never known what they were meant to be looking for, but this surely had to be it. Without taking their eyes from the glass, they pawed backwards for the lantern to get a better look. Within the mason jar, some kinda dark rope and buckskin lace bound a broken piece of antler to a sprig of hemlock. The two stood upright in the jar, rooted in dirt and stones where a reddish glow filtered through. It brightened, emanating heat, soon as the woman touched her ringed finger to it.

"I think it's what I came here for," she murmured. "What Buckmouse wanted me to find. Some talisman."

River could barely tear their eyes from the jar, but twice now she had mentioned this peculiar name. "Buckmouse?"

"The uh, well, the Not Deer," she replied, picking at the gunk in her hair. "That white stag that I got killed on the fence last year." Her eyes met theirs with remorse before falling back to the jar. "It's a long story."

"Well, I got nothin' but time."

Standing up, the woman took the jar from River's hands and they tried not to look too desperate wanting it back as they scrambled to their feet to follow her out. Lantern in hand, River trudged ahead making sure she steered clear of any puddles that might swallow her up again. As they neared the main chamber where the car was overturned, the canary's song softened, the light began to flicker, and the mountain's black claws started to sink into River's chest again.

"You still got that hankie I lent ya?"

The woman pulled it from her back pocket and handed it to them. It was damp, but mostly free of any muck, so folding it along the diagonal, River held it up to the woman's face and tied it around her head to cover her mouth. All those years ago, they'd managed to escape the noxious gasses by doing the same for themself.

"What about you?" Her genuine concern tickled River to smile as they tucked her nose under the hankie.

"Don't ya worry 'bout me none. I heal up quick. Besides, I think we've outstayed our welcome." River put their hand to the pocket that held the canary and gave it a little rub, but not so much as peep came out. "I'm not the wisest, but when a ghost canary stops singin', it's probably best to go."

"I don't feel right leaving Béla here," she pleaded with a whisper.

Up ahead, the glow of the flare still lit up red where he laid, ever waiting. River nodded as they looked down at the talisman in her hands. "Then we won't."

With this woman's help, there was a chance they could truly break the curse and Béla might just be able to make it to his Christian heaven after all. A much kinder end than sowing his soul to the ancients.

"River?" Béla called out. His voice seemed even more strained than earlier, but upon hearing it, the canary perked up and started wiggling around in their pocket, letting out a sweet trill of notes. "That you'ins?"

"Who else would it be, Bél?" River laughed. "Although, we did find your little yeller friend all mucked up in a corner."

Béla eagerly held out the only hand he could as River freed the bird from their shirt and placed it in his palm. He cupped the canary to his chest and his labored breathing hushed to a wheeze. The woman set the talisman off to the side as she knelt down next to him and River was tempted to grab it, just to hang onto it for safekeeping of course, but worry filled the woman's eyes. And as River followed their line of sight, they saw it too.

Fresh, red blood soaked most of his shirt and spilled down from his charred jaw and elsewhere. All the innards the woman had packed back into the gash in his abdomen had slipped out, oozing a peculiar black slime. Somehow, he looked worse off than he did just a bit ago. There'd be no way they could get him to the surface like this.

"River, what's wrong with her?" Béla asked as his bony finger stroked the bird's head.

"She's okay. She's singin', ain't she?" River choked down the lump in their throat as they took the knife from their belt. "It'll all be okay, Bél."

The woman's eyes widened when they caught sight of the blade, but she just turned to Béla and reached down to his side for the flask of moonshine. "Mr. Jánošík, how 'bout another drink?"

"They w—was right about her," Béla declined the drink and started coughing and stammering and making no sense. "She did this. Did all this. I—I seen her." His cough sent a spray of blood towards them both and the little bird quieted against his chest as it wheezed. "And I seen her with you."

Holding the knife, River looked down at their palm as blood dripped to the floor of the mine. A clap of cloudless thunder cracked through the hollow chamber, followed by the popping of wood splitting. The woman clutched River's arm in a silent plea, but they didn't waver. Smearing their blood along Béla's scorched chest, they drew out the triangle and its crescents.

"She's gonna get ya killt, Riv."

A rumble thrummed through the mine and River stepped away from Béla, grabbing up the talisman first, then the lantern. Lumps of rock and coal began to shoot across the room like bullets as the hungry roots fought their way to pierce the slate walls. And like a fool, the strange, cursed woman remained at Béla's side, holding tight to his arm with her ring aglow.

"C'mon!"

Roots slithered down from every wall, seeking their target, but instead of goring Béla's already ruptured abdomen, they wrapped around him, cradling him like a babe, something River had never seen before in their hundred years. Béla's eyes closed and he murmured something before the woman's ring dimmed. As more shoots snaked around him, River had to pull the woman back, lest she get tangled in the rootball that came to encase Béla completely.

"That symbol..." Her words hung with a question, but there was no time to answer.

"Anothern of them long stories. Let's go."

The few timber ribs that hadn't split a century ago began to snap one by one like toothpicks down the gangway as they both hurried to the caved-in wall. The roof continued to crack and the walls buckled, sending shards of slate through the air.

Finding the crevice along the floor where they had crawled through before, River turned to the woman. "Ladies first." They gestured with an uneasy smile as the floor trembled beneath their feet.

But the woman's eyes were fixed to some unseen point behind River. Before they could turn around to find out, she jerked them to the side as a black root, thick as a pine trunk, burst through the wall of slate and coal where they had been standing. Like a corkscrew, the root wound through the rock, branching out to brace the roof and walls and reopen the chamber where it had originally collapsed.

River and the woman took only a second to stare in awe before pulling away from each other to jog through the root's archway, mindful of the shoots that stretched across the heaved floor. On the other side, River's jacket still laid waiting and they snatched it up, dusting it free of dirt and rubble as more rock continued to fall around them. The red flares the woman had left barely flickered in the dark, but River knew the old turns to take. A breeze of fresh air swept through the chamber as they sprinted up the final slope where the vent shaft opened to the surface above.

Running ahead, the woman got to the door first, kicking out the slat that propped it open. "C'mon ol' man River," she teased as they passed through.

"Oh, we're bein' funny now, huh?" River laughed and coughed, helping her shut the door quickly behind them. The arm swung down with a slam, locking in place, and River collapsed to the side of it, hugging the mason jar all out of breath. The woman had no sooner slid down next to them and took off the handkerchief when a boom erupted from the tunnel. Ducking together, they covered their heads as the blast rippled their way and blew apart what was left of the vent door.

As the dust settled around them, the woman uncovered her head finding River's eyes with a smile. And she started to laugh a good laugh that River couldn't resist so they started laughing along with her.

"I think I'm actually losing my mind." Her voice cracked as she laughed and her eyes began to fill and spill with tears, streaking down through the black dust on her cheeks. "What am I doing here?"

River set the flickering lantern down off to the side, along with the talisman, though it left their hands reluctantly. Taking off their jacket, they draped it around her shoulders and knelt down in front of her to rub her arms. She was frozen, still soaked, and no doubtedly hungry. "Boots, I uh, can't answer that for ya, but I sure am glad as hell you showed up. Now, I've got a beautiful, aged backstrap of venison waiting for the two of us back at the cabin and I'm still lookin' forward to your buttermilk pie so you just take a breather and sit tight. I gotta free climb this shaft, then I can belay ya from the top."

With a nod, she shivered tighter into their jacket and pulled it close around her body.

Shaking off the dust from their harness, they pulled it up around their waist and fastened themself to the line. "I'll be up there in a flash."

And they were. The climb was far easier this time than it was a hundred years ago without any equipment, all roughed up from the two blasts. In fact, this time they were feeling mighty good about everything so long as they didn't think about Béla's last warning. However, this time, as they reached the top and took their first breath of good fresh air, the muzzle of their rifle nudged the bottom of their chin, held by the vile Jedidiah McAfoos.