Awakening: The Elder Chronicles, Volume 1

by Scott Wieczorek

  "Hey, Aden?" she called out. "I take it you neglected to purchase any snowshoes, or cross-country skis, or anything, huh?"

  Aden ignored her question and simply kept pushing his way through the snow. With his greater height, he moved much faster. Her muscles ached from lifting her knees almost to her chest with each step. On the verge of calling it quits, some dark shapes appeared in the distance. She decided to soldier on, and as they approached, it became apparent the dark shapes were actually a small group of shacks nestled in the snow.

  Despite Daimones being much stronger and faster than humans, they were not completely tireless. And the effort she had been putting out so far had really exhausted her. She surged forward in order to catch up to Aden. Alec remained at the back, keeping an eye out to either side of them to ensure they were not being followed.

  "Aden!" She spoke his name loud enough to get his attention, but in the quiet desolation of the woods, she might as well have bellowed it through a megaphone. The snowy corridor between the trees amplified her voice.

  Aden raised his right hand with a closed fist and stopped dead in his tracks. Elena did not understand the signal and nearly plowed right into him. He turned and scowled.

  In a hushed tone bordering on nonexistent, he whispered to her. "Elena. When I raise my fist, it means to stop right where you are."

  Embarrassment overcame her. "Sorry," she replied in a tone almost as hushed as his own.

  Aden scanned the small cluster of crude buildings. "I don't think there is anybody in this little camp. There are no visible tracks or paths in the snow. I think this is probably a camp used by migrant loggers."

  "Good," Elena replied. "Do you think we can stop here and rest for a little bit?"

  Aden nodded. "I don't know. Logging around here usually doesn't resume for a few more weeks. There is always the chance, though, a supervisor or someone will come back early to get the camp ready for the loggers to arrive. However, I don't think anyone will come tonight."

  "Speaking of tonight, what time is it?"

  Aden glanced down at his wrist. He had taken the opportunity to purchase a watch while out on his errands in the morning. "It's about three-thirty in the morning. We can stop to rest once we find somewhere safe up in the woods. These types of camps are never vacant for long. Wait here until we see if it is safe. We'll come back for you in a few moments."

  Aden shrugged off his pack and laid it on the ground next to Elena. He removed the assault rifle from his bedroll and attached the silencer. "In case there is any trouble."

  The moonlight reflecting off the snow created a ghostly glow. It amazed Elena at how well she could see. She watched as Alec followed back along his own footsteps and then cut off into the woods. She couldn't help but admire his form in the moonlight. He had a great body. Dammit! Stop! she scolded herself.

  "Watch for my hand signals," Aden said to her before he set off to follow the tree line along the other side of the clearing.

  Elena crouched in the snow and watched for any evidence of either Alec or Aden. Nothing. Not even the crunch of snow underfoot. She waited for what seemed to be an hour, until she heard a whistle from across the open field. Two figures stood side-by-side at the far end of the camp. Both of them waved her forward.

  It may have been paranoia given the whole situation, but warning sirens were going off in her head. Hadn't Aden told her to watch for hand signals? He said nothing about whistling. They were trying to confirm the camp had been abandoned, so why would they be whistling to her? She could see the assault rifles both men carried, and from the distance they looked a lot like Aden and Alec. But she didn't trust it. It seemed too much like some kind of odd setup. Her fear may have been unfounded, but it could have also had something to do with their track record so far, where every person they believed they could trust had betrayed them.

  She grabbed Aden's pack in one hand and removed her handgun from her lower back with the other. She slung the pack over her shoulder and started slowly across the wide-open field. Instead of making a beeline across the clearing, though, she headed straight for the closest building. When she reached the back corner, she stopped and listened, staring at the two men across the field.

  She wanted to reach out to them telepathically, but knew she couldn't. If her mental thread were observed by any of the Opposition's agents, it could lead anyone right to her, and the Elder. She slid her back across the building, creeping slowly to the corner closest to both men.

  Ducking low, she sprinted across the clearing to the corner of the next building. Unfortunately, it did not afford her an opportunity to confirm Aden and Alec stood across the field.

  She heard low laughter as she rounded the corner. But the sound held no humor, it sounded sinister and wicked. Ducking behind the corner, she raised the pistol in front of her.

  Quietly to herself she whispered, "Okay. Here we go."

  She dropped Aden's pack and whipped herself around the corner with the pistol pointed straight out before her. But before she could pull the trigger, the gun jerked upward in her hand, and disappeared from her grasp.

  "What the hell are you doing?" Alec asked. His voice betrayed both his confusion and his fear at nearly being shot at point-blank range.

  Overcome with relief, she leapt up, throwing her arms around his neck. If her squeezing his neck bothered him at all, he didn't so much as give a hint.

  "Oh, thank God!" she exclaimed. "I figured you guys were captured or something. Aden said to watch for hand signals. Then I hear this whistle, and I panicked."

  "What did you expect us to do?" Alec asked. "We couldn't contact you telepathically. We have to act like humans. I would have to say, though, your reaction is probably the best human reaction I have ever seen," he laughed. "Very authentic."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Well, it was authentic on two counts. First, you were suspicious about us. And then, you were so excited it really was us." He smiled devilishly. "Good hug!"

  She flushed and punched him in the shoulder. He winced a little but laughed nevertheless.

  "Jerk," she mumbled under her breath as she turned away to retrieve Aden's pack, but couldn't help smiling to herself. Maybe there was hope for him after all.

  When they reached Aden, she smiled, seeing he procured three pairs of snowshoes. "Our going should be a little bit easier now," he said as he tossed the shoes to the ground. "Alec and I found evidence someone has, in fact, been here recently. The tracks were filled in by snow, but they were still there. I think we should get going in case same somebody comes back."

  After putting on the snowshoes they headed off into the woods, their progress much improved. Following the woods back to the creek, it wound its way farther up the mountain. Despite having acclimated better to the cold air since leaving Paris, Elena enjoyed the warmth her new clothes offered.

  They came upon a small stone structure set into the mountain at the head of the small creek. A small trickle of water flowed out of the structure. It resembled a cave entrance in some old epic tale. Elena imagined a slew of elves, dwarves, and orcs inside.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Words were inscribed around the cave opening, and Aden translated them. "It says these are the Rakhiv Mineral Springs. I remember this cave. It goes deep into the mountain."

  Inside, Aden told them about the cave. "For more than four centuries, both the cave and its spring have been revered as mystical by the locals. There are legends an angel lives in the spring and grants wishes. The doorway we stepped through was built about three hundred years ago by a local lord, and his peasants would come and leave offerings outside."

  He paused thoughtfully. "I think this angel was either the Elder or one of his entourage. I remember coming here with my parents when I was very little but do not remember the way through the tunnels. The Elder lives beneath the mountain, and we must now find our way through its depths to his resting place." He stretched his massive arms out in wide, sweeping motions. "Welcome to the Elde
r's lair."

  Elena couldn't help but be puzzled. "Aden, if this legend is so widely shared, then why hasn't the Opposition managed to find the Elder?"

  Alec answered, "The answer is really a lot simpler than you think. As you may have observed, humans are very superstitious creatures, and because they are so superstitious, there are literally millions of legends about our kind. These legends are so common most of us tend to ignore them. Unless, of course, there is a Daimon living nearby, then there is a reason and source for the legends."

  She studied the vast darkness of the tunnels beyond, the source of the trickling water, and then turned to Aden. "So, I take it you packed us some flashlights and extra batteries?"

  "Yes, I did." He handed out two miner's type head lamps. "I believe I packed enough batteries for the trip. In the worst case, we can always improvise a torch."

  Elena nodded. "Let's go, then."

  As they made their way back into the tunnels, she examined the space, surprised the walls and ceiling were braced with ancient wooden frames. "How old is this place?" she asked out loud as she examined the worm-holed timbers.

  "Old," Aden replied. "Older than you can imagine. It was abandoned long before my generation was even born."

  "Surely someone must maintain the tunnels—make sure there are no cave-ins."

  Aden shook his head. "Sadly, there is no one. These tunnels have been untouched for thousands of years."

  The tunnel ended abruptly at a large cavern with a lofty ceiling and walls of undressed stone. A small trickle of water flowed through a narrow stone channel at the base of a foot-high tunnel at the far end. Scour marks upon the walls, though, suggested the stream could at times be very deep and fast flowing. She imagined this often happened during the spring, when melting snow would inundate the mountain's aquifer.

  The cave extended deep into the mountain. They followed the perimeter, searching for a way through, but could not see another tunnel save for the small opening in the rear wall. The cavern appeared to be a dead end.

  "So, where do we go now?" Elena asked Aden in frustration. Her voice echoed off the walls, and the question rebounded repeatedly.

  He peered up, scanning the ceiling and upper portions of the rock walls. "I remember flying in here," he said softly.

  "But I thought we were not supposed to use our powers," Alec noted.

  Aden glanced to the left and to the right. "Do you see any humans? Or Daimones?" He paused for a moment, "Elena, can you see anything up there?"

  She searched but did not see any mental threads flying through the air. A brief flash of something shining on the floor caught her eye, but she figured it a glint from their miner's lamps reflecting on a wet stone.

  "There's no other choice." She began to levitate up off the ground, examining the walls of the cavern as she rose toward the ceiling. There were no breaks in the solid stone walls. The upper cavern walls were very smooth and appeared to be well worn, as if water had been flowing and circulating for ages, slowly scouring out this chamber.

  A few drops of water struck her on her head, drawing her attention further upward. At the apex of the chamber, nearly fifty feet above the floor, she found a nearly perfectly circular opening in the ceiling.

  "Hey guys!" she yelled down, "I think this is it."

  Aden and Alec both removed their coats and shirts, and put on their packs. They allowed their wings to expand and stretch to full width, then rose slowly up in the air to join Elena.

  Alec spoke first after examining the opening for a few seconds. "This can't be the way," he said. "The opening is too narrow. My wings won't fit through. How would a Daimon be expected to fly through there?"

  "This has to be it," Aden persisted. "I distinctly remember flying in this very chamber." He pointed upward. "This is the way forward."

  "Maybe," Alec retorted with frustration, "but our wings won't fit and neither will our packs." He glanced at Elena. She didn't like his expression. "Someone will have to go up first," he said, "and we'll have to hand the equipment up."

  She knew this to be the sole way forward. The solid walls showed no sign of any other entrance, leaving them no other choice. "Let me go up," she said to them both. "I can scout ahead."

  Alec seemed about to object but said nothing.

  Aden spoke next, "Please be careful. We can always leave our packs here and then come back for them."

  "Why don't we tie a rope to the packs and pull them up once we get up there?" Alec asked.

  Elena gazed up into the passageway. "I like that idea. But I will still need to go up and see how we can get through. Since I don't rely on wings to fly, and I am the smallest, I am the logical one to go."

  She floated up into the opening before either Daimon could respond. A light trickle of water flowed down along the edges of the rock, covering the interior with algae and scum. The opening belonged to a rather long, smooth vertical shaft abraded into the stone by the same flowing waters, which created the chamber below. It took her about a minute to float carefully through the tunnel. Though narrow at the mouth, the tunnel widened at the top. Both men would need to climb through instead of using their wings. Scanning the walls of the shaft, there were no visible handholds they could use in the perfectly smooth surface.

  She could see the end of the tunnel above. It was pitch black inside, but the light from her headlamp pierced some of the darkness from the chamber above. It had to be a large chamber because all she could see above was more darkness. Elena floated slowly up to the top of the opening. Her head rose gradually above the edge to a wide, expansive stone floor covered with a shallow sheet of water.

  She lowered herself back down the shaft a little faster than she had ascended. Alec and Aden were both still hovering where she had left them. They had attached a rope to all three of the packs.

  "Well, boys," she said. "It's pretty narrow up there. You won't be able to use your wings at all. I'll have to bring the packs up first. Then we can use the rope for you to climb up. The shaft walls are slick with water and slime, and there are no handholds."

  "Okay," Alec said, trying to see if Aden agreed.

  He did. "It sounds like a good plan to me."

  The whole process took about ten minutes. Once up top, they donned their packs and spread out a little bit. Inside the immense new chamber, each of them stood at least one hundred feet from the opening, the lights from their headlamps unable to locate a definitive edge to the cavernous expanse.

  Alec broke the silence. "Hey!" he called out, "I think I found where the water is coming from." Elena turned around and followed his stare, though she could barely see him at the edge of her own lamp's beam. He must have been at least five hundred feet away from her.

  She floated over to him in a split second and hovered. There, stretching far out of sight before them was a massive underground lake. But there was something strange, something different about the water. It seemed almost bright. She turned off her headlamp.

  "Alec, turn off your lamp."

  "What?" he asked in confusion, "Why?"

  "Do it," she insisted, and he switched it off.

  As her eyes adjusted, she noticed a definitive soft glow emanating from the water. Inside were thousands of small, bioluminescent fish swimming about.

  "Aden!" she called. "Turn off your headlamp. There are fish glowing in the water. We can see fine without the lamps. The lamps are actually working against us."

  "Right, I remember that part. We flew over the glowing pond to a massive doorway, and then we had to walk down a long tunnel. On the other side was..." His idea trailed off.

  "Was what?" Elena asked.

  "Hmm? Excuse me?" Aden replied.

  "Aden," she asserted, "what was on the other side of the tunnel?"

  "Oh." He chuckled a little and impishly said with a wink, "You'll see."

  He surveyed his surroundings and pointed off toward the far side of the lake. "We have to go this way." He leapt off from the cavern floor and flew off across the
lake.

  Alec turned to Elena. "After you."

  She flew off after Aden, followed by Alec.

  The vast lake stretched for what seemed to be several thousand feet while the cavern's ceiling rose at least two hundred feet above their heads, carved by eons of flowing melt water.

  Aden's massive wings beat the air and caused ripples on the surface of the otherwise mirror-like lake. The ripples sent flashes of bioluminescent light dancing across the walls and ceiling in a ballet of shimmering motion. The three flew in silence. At the far end of the lake, they could finally see a water-worn cavern wall emerge from the darkness ahead. Massive mineral columns rose up from the water and connected to the ceiling. Between the two most massive columns, she could see an opening.

  Surrounded with ornate carvings of Daimones and humans interacting, the opening had been cut into the cavern wall. Above the opening were several unrecognizable symbols of a language Elena had never before seen. However, she somehow understood the writing.

  "Beyond these gates lies the city of Sheol, from whence we came and to which we all must return." Elena spoke the words.

  Aden gawked at her, stunned.

  "Elena," he said with wonder and a slight chuckle, "yet again, you are keeping things from us."

  "What are you talking about?" she asked him, completely perplexed by his reaction.

  "You can read ancient Malachim?" he asked. "Simply amazing. I can read a few phrases or words here and there I learned from my parents," he told her. "There are very few of us beyond the second generation who have ever learned how to read the language."

  Alec added, awestruck. "I don't know much. I don't think my parents ever knew any of it. And yet it appears you read it fluently."

  Their responses to another of her awakening abilities shocked her. She didn't want to linger much on the subject and tried to change it by asking, "So, what do those words mean?"

  Alec responded. "In human Hebrew belief," he explained, "Sheol was the underworld. It was the place where the souls of those who died would congregate."