Ship of Souls

yells, “You—boy! Get back here!”
    When I disobey, the captain barks another command—this time to his troops: “It’s a diversion—after him, boys! Don’t let him escape!”
    I try to run, but I can barely move my feet through the swirling stream of rodents. I fall more than once but keep on inching forward, knowing I’m now being pursued by a mob of ghosts. I keep my eyes glued on the black mouth of the tunnel where I saw Nyla and Keem, but when I finally get there—they’re gone.
    “Nyla? Keem?” I hear my desperate voice echo down the dark tunnel, but I can’t see anyone. Were my eyes playing tricks on me? Did I just imagine my friends had come to rescue me?
    Then I hear Nyla’s voice up ahead: “Hurry, D—this way!”
    I rush forward into the blackness, trailing my hand along the tunnel wall so I don’t trip over the steady trickle of mice and rats scampering along the ground. I keep hoping I’ll see the white circle of light again, but nothing appears to guide me. Where are they?
    Behind me I can hear the curses of the angry ghost soldiers and the tiny shrieks of rodents as they are kicked or stabbed or swept aside. I want to speed up, but I am afraid to plunge further into the darkness alone. I tug at my shirt, hoping to see that light glowing again in my chest, but I can’t see, hear, or feel Nuru’s presence. I am alone.
    Just as my heart sinks in despair, I hear Nyla’s voice once more.
    “D—up here!”
    I turn to face the wall and strain my eyes to see the top of the tunnel. Nyla flicks on her flashlight for just a moment so I can see her face peering out of a small hole. “How’d you get up there?” I ask.
    The beam of light wavers as Nyla moves aside to let Keem take her place in the small opening about six feet off the ground. “Never mind—just hurry up!” Keem says.
    I reach into the darkness. Keem leans out of the hole, bats my hands aside, and grasps my forearms instead. I hear him grunt as he pulls me up off the ground. I use my feet to climb up the wall, and within a few seconds I’m in the secret tunnel with Nyla and Keem. It is much smaller than the tunnel I just left, and we lie pressed close together as the ghost soldiers pass below us muttering angrily.
    “Where’s he gone?”
    “Bring a torch! Can’t find a darkie in the dark.”
    “We should’ve skinned him alive while we had the chance!”
    “Come on, boys—he don’t know these tunnels like we do!”
    We feel a rush of icy air, and then there is silence in the tunnel below. Nyla wriggles away from the opening and gestures for us to follow her. We don’t say a word until we’re deep in the secret tunnel and sure that no one can hear us. The space isn’t large enough for any of us to stand, so we sit in a tight circle with Nyla’s flashlight in the middle.
    “How did you guys find me? And what happened to your arm?”
    Nyla touches her right shoulder and then shrugs to prove it’s OK. “You tell me, D. One minute blood was oozing from my shoulder, and then you touched me and…”
    “And what?”
    Keem takes over the story. “By the time I reached her, the bleeding had stopped. I couldn’t even tell where the spike went in.”
    “But—that’s impossible!”
    “Is it?” asks Nyla. “Earlier today the bird perched on your knee for two seconds, and all of a sudden the wound in your ankle healed up.” Nyla watches me as I consider her words—and their implication. “It’s inside of you, isn’t it—the bird?”
    I nod and check for the light in my chest, but there’s still no sign of Nuru.
    “So that must mean that whatever healing power it had has now passed to you.” Nyla takes my hand in hers. “You touched me, remember? I grabbed your hand before you left, and I felt— something —shoot up into my arm.”
    Keem either doesn’t notice or doesn’t mind that Nyla’s still holding my hand. “Can you, like, feel it inside of you?” he asks.
    “Not really. But I can still hear her. Nuru’s been guiding me…off and on.”
    “We sure could have used a guide,” says Keem. “We followed that stone monster and saw you crawl into the white boulder. But then the creature fell apart and the entrance was covered by a ton of bricks.”
    Nyla jumps in. “So we started looking for a fallen tree.”
    “Why?” I ask.
    “Remember how we saw the mist coming out of the ground where that old tree had been ripped up by the roots? We figured that must be a way into…their world. But