Suddenly, angry shouts resounded in a hallway to their right as they passed. Chalice whipped her head around and saw a huge group of men speeding in their direction. As quickly as they could, they careened around the corner into the stairwell and made what Chalice thought was the fastest three-legged descent of their lives. It took the Draaquans a moment to discover where they had gone as none of them expected they would head for the prison. This allowed them valuable time to gain a head start down the stairwell. Despite it, though, as they reached the end and entered the prison, the men had gained and were almost upon them.
Chalice stopped and looked back. She was breathing hard and her heart beat frantically.
“What are you doing, Chalice? Come on!” Jeremiah shouted.
“No, Jeremiah, they’re too close!” she said in a panic. “They’ll reach us before we get to the door.”
She looked down and discovered that her hand was on Aemis’s firestick. Then, it suddenly occurred to her what she needed to do. She ripped the stick out from her belt and held it up.
“Aemis, how does this work?”
“Set it in the direction you want it to fly and light the end of the string.”
Swiftly, she grabbed the candle from the lantern and bolted to the first section of the staircase. She could hear the pounding of Draaquan boots getting closer. It sounded like an army marching to war. Holding the firestick with the wooden stem, she placed it on the step in front of her, aimed, and lit the string. Fire sizzled all the way up to the base of the tube. Then, it suddenly shot from her hand, the wood burning her palm, and flew up the stairwell toward the men with incredible speed and accuracy. She marveled at Aemis’s talent as she watched it go. At that moment, the first Draaquan emerged from the darkness into the torchlight at the top of the last section and glared at her.
“Chalice, get back here quickly!” Aemis yelled in warning and she felt Jeremiah’s strong hand seize her left arm and yank her off her feet, back behind the corner. She ducked behind them on the ground and replaced the candle.
A furious explosion shattered the air and they covered their heads as multi-colored light from the passageway blasted out of the stairwell and into the prison in a searing hot mass of dust and broken bits of stone. The fortress shook and rumbled loudly as huge blocks of rock fell, collapsing the stairwell right where the Draaquans had been. They heard men screaming in pain and raging curses echoed down the now-blocked hallway. Chalice stood up and walked over to the bottom of the staircase, peering up into the dust.
“Wow, Aemis! That really works!” she said, coughing loudly. “That should hold them off for a while.”
“Well done, Chalice!” Aemis cheered. “That was satisfying.”
“Well done to you!” Jeremiah said proudly to his friend, as he rose from the ground. “That was your invention!”
“Well, it wasn’t meant to be a weapon, but … given the circumstances …” Aemis added, attempting to stand up.
Chalice ran over and helped Jeremiah pull Aemis from the floor. Then, they continued down the prison corridor to the doorway. As she glanced around, Chalice could see that the cells were empty and she hoped that Ben and Kirna had gotten all of the prisoners into the passage before the alarm had sounded. Finally, turning the last corner, they saw Kirna standing in the opening with a lantern.
“Oh, thank heaven!” she exclaimed. “That explosion! What was it?”
“That was Aemis’s firestick,” Chalice replied, laughing. “We managed to stop them with their own weapon.”
“Right on!” Kirna laughed and stepped back as they rushed into the passage.
“Where’s Ben?” Jeremiah asked, as two men that he didn’t recognize approached them to offer a hand with Aemis. Then, he pulled the door shut.
“He’s at the front of the line,” Kirna replied. “He’s leading them. He told me to stay back and wait for you. We managed to get everyone, but there are many who are really sick,” she said, shaking her head. “Chalice, I don’t think they’re going to make it to the ships.”
“Well, like Ben said, we have to try,” Chalice said and sprang into a run along the line of people. Kirna and Jeremiah followed swiftly after her. As they descended the long tunnel, they passed what seemed like hundreds of people, all of them filthy and unkempt men, women, and children. Kirna was right. Many of them were very sick. One woman, Chalice noted, appeared to be clutching a dead baby to her breast. Apparently, the woman hadn’t wanted to leave it behind.
How heartbreaking! she thought as she ran.
It took forever to reach the end of the line and by that time, they were close to the bottom near the exit out of the mountain. Suddenly, they heard the clop of horse hooves and saw Tycho standing there in the tunnel, talking to Ben with Bunejab right next to him.
“There are large groups of riders out there, Ben,” he was saying with a worried expression. “They appear to be looking for something and they’re close to the gorge.”
“How many?” Ben asked.
“Hundreds!” Tycho said, shaking his head in dismay. “It’s only a matter of time before they find the entrance.”
Ben looked troubled. “We won’t be able to get all these people past them. There’s no way,” he said, shaking his head in frustration. “Curse it! We’re trapped!”
“What are we going to do?” Kirna asked, her voice trembling with fear, and Ben turned around to look at her.
“You’re back! Good.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “What are we going to do? I don’t know. Let me think,” he said worriedly and they all stood there, terrified and speechless. They had been relying on him and if Ben didn’t know what to do, that meant it was over. They were caught.
Chalice was starting to feel the nervous sickness again she had felt when they had first passed this section of the tunnel. She placed her hand on her stomach and the other she placed on the wall to steady herself as she closed her eyes and hung her head. Jeremiah touched her shoulder gently.
“You alright?” he asked softly.
Then, suddenly, she knew. She looked up at the wall and removed her hand. Ignoring his question and ignoring the murmurs of everyone around her, she began kicking it violently, as hard as she could.
“Chalice, there is no use kicking the wall,” Tycho said forlornly. “It’s not going to help and you’re just going to hurt yourself.” The tone of his voice implied that he had already given up.
“Chalice, what are you doing?” Jeremiah asked. He was concerned that she was cracking under the pressure and losing control.
“I feel something!” she cried. “I feel something right here! I felt it when we passed by this spot coming in. It’s this way.”
“What way?” he asked. “There’s nothing but a wall.” He looked at her as if she was losing her mind.
Then, all the sudden, the wall cracked where she had been pounding it with her foot and they could hear the noise echo down a large, hollow cavity behind the stone. They all stood there, frozen.
“She’s got a powerful kick!” Ben remarked to Jeremiah, a hint of hope in his voice.
“Umm … yeah. You have no idea,” Jeremiah said, the memory of having been sent flying across his father’s study still itching in his mind. Chalice continued kicking at the wall with all the force she had left. She was exhausted and Ben could see it.
“Stand back, Chalice,” he ordered, placing his hand on her shoulder. She didn’t need telling twice. She stopped and backed away. They all did. Then, he held his palm to the cracked wall as his daieoden gleamed with light.
Suddenly, the stone blocks burst outwards, tumbling into a wide cavern that lay on the other side. Kirna and Tycho had to calm the horses, who jumped and danced around, terrified by the explosion. Jeremiah moved the lantern toward the opening and shed light onto the dirt floor of the passageway that stretched out before them. It sloped gently downward into darkness.
“Look at that!” Ben exclaimed with a jolt of excitement.
“Good job, Ch
alice!” Kirna burst out, putting her arm around her best friend, but Chalice didn’t respond. She had a crazed look in her eye as she grabbed the lantern from Jeremiah and darted through the doorway.
“Wait!” Ben cautioned, but she didn’t listen. “Reckless girl!” he growled. “She plunges ahead into the unknown without a care that she might get hurt!”
“I agree with you!” Jeremiah said in exasperation, as he jumped after her. Ben stayed where he was, motioning the others not to follow. A few moments passed and they heard Jeremiah’s shout resound in the chamber below.
“Uh, Ben, you may want to come down here,” he said. “And bring everyone with you. There’s plenty of room.”
“Alright, we’re coming!” Ben shouted back and then turned to Kirna. “You take them down, but be careful. I’ll stay back and usher them through. Once we have everybody, I’ll need to seal this hole in the wall. Hopefully we can do this before we’re discovered.”
Kirna nodded and let Tycho, Bunejab, and the horses go first. Then, she motioned to the people in line and they began to follow her cautiously down the dirt path. A few spans down, the path became murky, wet, and cold. They rounded the huge rock wall and suddenly found themselves in an enormous cavern through which a large stream flowed, pooling into a small pond in the middle. Huge stalactites and stalagmites jutted out from the ceiling and the floor. Some were so big that they met in the middle and formed columns.
But that wasn’t what awed them. What held their attention were the glowing, multi-colored gems of all shapes and sizes strewn along the bank and under the surface of the pond and stream. The rushing water shot shimmers of light from the stones, giving the rock walls a pearlescent glow. Kirna looked over and found Chalice slowly crossing the stream, waist deep in water. Jeremiah was with her, holding her steady and keeping her from being pulled under by the force of the current.
“What are they doing?” someone in the crowd asked. Kirna knew, but she hushed the crowd anyway and stayed silent.
It took a long time, but Chalice and Jeremiah finally reached the other side of the water where everyone saw what she was after. She bent down toward a beautiful, pulsating gem and removed it from the bank of the stream. She was wet and muddy, but she didn’t care. The gem looked like a sapphire that had been finely cut into the shape of a tear drop. It was bright blue and sparkled on every side. She dipped it into the water to wash off the flecks of mud that covered it, then lifted it in her palm and held it in front of her face. Her eyes gleamed as blue light from her stone rose and fell, pulsing with the beat of her heart and illuminating everything around it.
Then, she suddenly understood the part of her that had been missing her whole life, that she hadn’t even known until now. It was almost as if it were a vital organ inside of her that she couldn’t live without. She could feel its very being within her and she knew now what Ben meant when he had said: For reasons I will teach you later, they cannot live without their daieoden. She knelt there, motionless, Jeremiah at her side, mesmerized by this huge part of her that she had been living without for so long.
“What is it?” a woman asked.
“It’s her daieoden,” Kirna responded.
“It’s what?”
“Her stone,” she said. “She is Terravailian.” And then, Kirna suddenly realized how different she and her best friend were from each other. The fact hadn’t really occurred to her until now.
“She found it,” a deep voice issued from behind her. Kirna turned and saw Ben standing behind her. He had just walked up with Bunejab.
“Is everyone in?” she asked.
“Yes, but—” he broke off when a man yelled from the darkness.
“Hey! I found something!”
Ben turned his head abruptly in the direction of the man’s voice and shouted: “What is it?”
“I don’t know. It’s some kind of door, I think.”
He bolted toward the man, Kirna and Bunejab following right behind him. Tycho just stood there with the horses, watching, as Jeremiah and Chalice, having risen from the bank of the stream, made their way back across the water.
As Ben ran up, he saw immediately what the man had found. It was a huge doorway, outlined in a silvery vein that formed an intricate pattern. A small circle was located to its immediate right.
“Stand back,” he said and placed his palm on the circle.
“Are you going to blow up the wall again?” Tycho asked.
“No,” Ben replied as the outline of the doorway glowed brightly and the doors pushed open to loud gasps of astonishment. Warm air blew past everyone, rushing out of the darkness inside. Then, Ben stepped in and placed his palm on the inner wall. They all gaped as the enormous room within lit up blindingly.
“It’s here!” Ben said, incredulous. “It has been here the whole time, right under my nose. We finally found it.”
“Found what?” Kirna asked.
“The lost city of Barenthren.”
The Lost City of Barenthren
“It’s beautiful!” Kirna exclaimed.
The cavernous dome before them stretched far up into the mountain with an immense, thick column of stone supporting it in the center. A spiraling staircase, hewn into the column’s surface, led up the dome and disappeared into the darkness above where the walls were not lit. Along its length, stone bridges extended to tunneled doorways that dotted the brilliantly glowing walls, giving access to other parts of the city. From the entrance, a stone pathway led to a bubbling, golden fountain that sprayed clear water in rivulets, splashing down into a pool at its base. The pathway connected with others that spread in various directions. In between them, soft grass grew quietly underneath green, leafy canopies of trees.
“We’re saved,” Ben said softly under his breath and released a long sigh of relief. He motioned everyone to enter.
They led the horses in first. Then, people began pouring through the doorway in droves, resting themselves in the shady areas of the grass and staring around numbly as if they couldn’t believe their eyes. Cries of joy could be heard as families and friends were reunited with one another in tearful embraces.
Bunejab, who had been next to Ben the whole time, immediately set to work gathering water from the fountain and treating the sick. Children approached him warily, taken aback by the sight of the little Chinuk and when he spoke to them, they giggled and ran away.
“What is that?” Kirna asked Ben, as they stood there and ushered people by the door. She was pointing to the enormous column in the dome’s center.
“It’s called the Toros Komun. It’s the supporting column of every underground city. Without it, the city would crumble. Although, Barenthren’s column is slightly different than others I’ve seen. It’s taller and thinner.”
“How do you know we’re in Barenthren?”
He pointed to the fountain. “The wellspring. You see the requin?”
She studied the water spouts and sure enough, it was sculpted in the same fashion as the bowsprit of the Morning Dawn.
“Oh, like on the Quaie’Miren ship,” she said.
“Yes. That is the Requin Fountain, the wellspring of Barenthren. That’s how I know.”
At that moment, Chalice walked up with Jeremiah behind her, placing her stone into her belt pouch.
“Barenthren. Yeah, I saw the name on the map.” The words came out of her mouth before she could stop them and she winced.
Oops! she thought.
Ben stared at her in surprise. “What map? Where did you see that name?”
“Um … I have something to tell you,” she said as he shot her a reproachful glare. She had the impression that he already knew.
“You went sneaking around the Farahs’ castle, didn’t you?” he said knowingly and she gave him a sheepish look. “We’ll talk about this later. Not now. We need to get everyone settled in first. Then, we need to find the green room.”
“Ben,” Jeremiah cut in, “Aemis has a broken leg. Can you—” he began, but Ben quick
ly interrupted him.
“Show me where he is,” he said. “Chalice, you and Kirna stay here and shut the door after everyone passes through.”
“Okay,” she said and then suddenly remembered the trouble she had had with the vellen in the Chinukan village. Before she could say anything, however, Ben and Jeremiah had already spotted Aemis propped up against the base of a tree and were making their way over to him. He was in a small group with Tobias, Seychelle, and what appeared to be Jeremiah’s brothers by the look of them. Jeremiah had found his friends and family so quickly, Chalice thought, and she wondered where her grandparents were. Standing there at the entrance, she kept an eye out, but she didn’t see them, nor did she see anyone from her village. There were so many people, she couldn’t spot them anywhere.
They must have already passed through, she thought. So, she made a mental note to look for them later.
After the last group entered, she moved to place her hand on the vella and stopped. Just then, as if it had already known what she wanted, the doors immediately began moving inward and the wide gap of darkness outside began to shrink.
That’s strange! she thought. Shrugging it off, she turned.
“What am I supposed to do with the horses?” Tycho asked. He was standing off to the right, holding them out of the way of the streaming people.
“Let’s look for a place to put them. There has to be something,” Chalice said as she took the reins of Sunny and Banner and led them around the Toros Komun. Kirna and Tycho grabbed the other horses and followed.
They stopped at various doors along the way and each time she moved to touch the wall, the door opened before she reached it. It was the strangest thing, she thought. She couldn’t figure it out. Before, she couldn’t get the vellen to work at all, but now she didn’t even need to touch them.
Weird! she thought.
Finally, they came to a door that opened to the smell of dust, grass, and hay. It was, in short, the same smell as the Chinukan stable room that she had been in before. It also had a similar layout except it was much larger, taking up the entire room. Another difference was a stream that ran through the pasture. It flowed in from the left, through a tunnel in the stone next to the fence and out on the other side in the same fashion.
The Raie'Chaelia (Legend of the Raie'Chaelia, Book One 1) Page 33