‘Rowan, use your arrows!’ Lexi yelled from behind the monster. He swiftly pulled his bow from his back, drew and nocked an arrow, and let it fly, directly into the underside of the reared creature. There was an ear-piercing shriek, as it reared back further, toppling over. In the dim light they could make out the spider now laid on its back, its legs curled in on themselves, twitching and flinching. As the monster drew its last breath, the lights along the corridor flickered back to life, illuminating for the first time, the sheer enormity of what had attacked them. Rowan collapsed to the floor,
‘I really hate spiders!’ he stated, his complexion now a little less white.
Ascension
The journey through the corridor was uneventful for the following few hours, not that any of them were complaining. A giant spider was certainly something they didn’t want to come across again in a hurry. As they approached a blind bend in the tunnel, the lights began to flicker a little. They all looked to each other, apprehensive of getting plunged into darkness again. Lexi drew her sword and studied it, it wasn’t glowing. Hopefully, a good indication that there wasn’t anything too threatening ahead, or behind for that matter. Cautiously moving at a slower pace as they made their way around the bend, they soon came face-to-face with something exceptionally large blocking the path ahead. Whatever it was, it seemed to snake from one side of the tunnel to the other, back and forth a few times, heading off into the distance. It appeared to be completely encased with a thick white, sticky lattice, entirely concealing what was inside. Rowan reached out and touched the casing, his fingers accumulating some of the sticky residue. He grimaced at the feel of the substance and tried his best to wipe it onto the wall nearby.
‘It looks as if our friend back there, incapacitated one of his monster friends for us!’ He poked it with the tip of his sword, jumping back a little, as the creature inside, squirmed beneath its prison. He stood up onto the tips of his toes and peered over the beast,
‘I think we can fly over.’ He declared, lifting his thumb and forefinger to his chin in thought. ‘If we try to climb over, we’ll either get stuck in that sticky mess, or we’ll rip a hole and risk setting it free’. He flicked his shoulders, and his wings emerged either side of where his weapons crossed over on his back. He lifted up into the air,
‘I’ll go and check it out, to make sure we can get past. I’ll be right back’, he disappeared into the cavity above the large creature. Lexi’s gazed followed him until he disappeared out of sight,
‘I think it’s going to take a lot of getting used to, seeing wings pop out of nowhere!’ she joked, trying to hide the fact that she’d been gazing after him like a lovesick puppy. Amber wasn’t fooled,
‘You really like him, don’t you?’ she queried. Lexi flushed and hung her head. ‘He’s a good guy Lexi. I feel awful that I doubted him. He has a dark brooding side, don’t get me wrong, but I believe his heart is in the right place.’ She took Lexi by both shoulders and looked her directly in the eyes, ‘From what I’ve seen, I’m quite sure he’s given that part of himself over to you, and it takes a lot for a fairy to fall in love!’
‘You think he’s in love with me!’ Lexi reacted, a little shocked by such a serious declaration.
‘You’re telling me you’re not?’ Amber quizzed. Lexi put her head to the side, flushing with embarrassment, a large smile growing on her face.
A short time later Rowan came soaring back through the cavity, landing beside Lexi and Amber elegantly.
‘We’re good to go’ he announced, reaching back, and brushing off a few fine cobwebs from his wings. Amber gave Lexi a wink, flicked her shoulders, and her wings sprung to life. Lexi began to panic, she didn’t know how to summon her wings. The first time, it happened without her realising what was going on. She flicked her shoulders a few times, but nothing happened. Alarm bells began to ring in her head, and she began hyperventilating. Rowan took both her hands in his,
‘Lexi, relax and look at me’ he spoke calmly. ‘You can do this. I want you to close your eyes, like before.’ She nodded and took a deep breath to try and calm herself. ‘I want you to think of a place you are happy’. Lexi nodded and let herself relax into her imagination, but her happy place wasn’t quite the same as last time. Her happy place was now shared with Rowan, the two of them happily soaring through the clouds together. She pulled herself back to reality to find with amazement she was hovering above the ground with Rowan, her wings clearly visible. She leaned in and gently kissed him on the lips,
‘Thank you’ she whispered.
They all rose into the air, elegantly hovering in front of the hole they were intending to navigate. Rowan adjusted his weapons a little, making sure everything was fixed in place.
‘I’ll go first’, he instructed, ‘Lexi, I want you to follow behind me. Amber, are you okay to follow up in the back?’ Amber nodded in reply. With that, he gracefully moved himself into a horizontal position and slowly headed into the cavity. Each of the girls following shortly after one another.
All went smoothly to begin with, the hole was large enough to navigate with ease. Rowan exited on the opposite side, lowering himself to the ground with a sigh of relief. He turned to see Lexi appearing through the gap not long after him. She flew into his outreached arms and lowered herself to the ground in front of him, a flick of her shoulders making her wings retract, much to her delight. They turned to look for Amber emerging from the cavity, but just as her head came into sight, the creature began to squirm in its prison, its tail end flicked up into the air, catching the tip of one of Ambers right wings. She stuck fast to the sticky shell, alarm clear on her face, she fought to pull herself free. The tail began to thrash, the creature aware something was close by. Amber was flung around in the air, occasionally rebounding off the walls. A loud tearing sound echoed through the tunnel as Amber broke free and came hurtling towards them, out of control. They all landed in a heap on the floor. Lexi and Rowan quickly got to their knees, checking Amber over. Lexi gasped,
‘Amber, your wing!’. Amber, stunned from her experience, looked to see a large tear in her upper right wing. Lexi turned to Rowan,
‘Can I heel it, like I did when you were hurt?’, panic evident in her voice. Rowan shook his head,
‘Unfortunately not, wings are much more difficult to heal than the body’. He reached out and gently assessed the damage. Sighing, he placed his hand on Ambers shoulder,
‘Amber, I’m really sorry but you won’t be flying again any time soon. It looks like it might be a few months of heeling. Can you retract them?’ he questioned. Amber flicked her shoulders, and to her relief, they at least withdrew properly. With a solemn expression on her face, she lowered her head.
‘I’m sorry guys, I guess I misjudged the exit’. Lexi took her hand, shaking her head in disagreement,
‘Amber that wasn’t your fault, the creature…’ Lexi halted, as another loud tearing sound reverberated through the tunnel. They looked to see the shell that was encasing the creature, had begun to tear where Amber had been trapped. They quickly rose to their feet,
‘We’ve got to get out of here, quickly!’, Rowan stressed, as they all turned and sprinted, as fast as they could, down the corridor. As they sped around a corner, in the distance they could see a door, blocked with a pile of large bones. The tearing sounds were getting louder and more frequent, echoing all around them. Reaching the bones, they began lifting them from in front of the door swiftly, but there were so many. Lexi concluded that these must have been from all the other monsters that had once lived within the tunnel. They had all slowly killed each other, until only two remained. There were only a few more bones left to move when it suddenly went quiet. They paused, listening closely for any sound. An ear-piercing shriek suddenly reverberated down the tunnel.
‘It’s worked its way free!’ Rowan shouted, his eyes wide with fear. ‘Quickly, we’ve got to get through this door!’ He emphasised, frantically throwing more bones away from the exit as quickly as he
could. They could finally see the door clearly, it had a large metal disc, some sort of seal, holding the door closed. Another shriek filled the air, this time louder, a lot closer. Amber pushed through to the door, to get a good look at the seal,
‘It’s a Royal blood seal!’ she shouted, looking to Lexi. ‘It needs the blood of a high ranking Royal, that’s you Lexi!’ She swiftly grabbed Lexi’s hand and collected a shard of bone from the ground close by. ‘This will hurt, but it’s our only hope!’ she stressed, an apology evident in her expression as she dragged the jagged bone across Lexi’s palm. Lexi screamed with pain, Rowan was instantly at her side, oblivious to what had been going on.
‘What the hell Amber!’ he shouted, pulling Lexi’s hand from her grasp. Understanding what she needed to do, Lexi swiftly turned to the door seal and placed her bloodied palm on its centre. There was a loud creaking and moaning from the door, followed by a series of thuds, as locks within slowly opened. The lights began to flicker, they turned to see the head of the creature appear around the corner, it’s large, snake like head sniffing the air. It spun to face them as it picked up their scent, it raised its head and shrieked once more, before lunging down the corridor towards them, its mouth packed with razor sharp fangs.
The door suddenly swung open behind them, they fell backwards into a dimly lit hall, the door subsequently slamming back shut after them. The seal on the opposite side of the door was slowly flashing a pale red.
‘Lexi, you need to seal the door shut’ Amber gasped. Lexi jumped up and reached her bloodied hand to the seal once more, the locks all sliding back into place just in time, as the creature beyond, slammed fiercely into it. There came two more fierce blows to the door, then all went silent. They all collapsed back to the ground, giving a sigh of relief.
‘Well that wasn’t quite as bad as Althaea made out!’ Rowan panted, with a heavy hint of sarcasm.
They sat for a while, catching their breath. Amber had been looking around with a puzzled expression on her face. She eventually stood, walked over to what appeared to be a large stone bench, and knelt beside it.
‘Hi Dad’ She whispered, only just audible to Lexi and Rowan in the deathly silence. Rowan’s head lifted as he began to take an interest in the surroundings.
‘Are we in the catacombs?’ he questioned. Amber nodded her head in acknowledgment. ‘Then the tunnel brought us directly to the Palace. Lexi you’re home’ he declared, standing to explore the room more. He reached out his hand to help her up,
‘Thank you, but I think I’ll sit for a little while longer’ she stated, a sense of sadness washing over her. Rowan bowed his head and set off, exploring the vast room alone.
Amber sat whispering to her Father’s grave for quite some time. When she made her way back towards the door, her eyes were wet with tears.
‘I never get to visit him’, she stated, her face solemn, as she sat herself down beside Lexi. Lexi wrapped her arm around Ambers shoulders and pulled her in for a hug. Rowan returned a little while later and sat himself on the ground next to them.
‘I’ve found the stairway out of here’ he noted, ‘There’s a large spiral staircase over at the far side’. Amber nodded,
‘Yeah, it heads to the throne room. I remember from my Father’s funeral’. She wiped her eyes, got to her feet, and walked to his grave. Kissing her palm, she laid it on the cold stone, ‘Bye Dad, I love you’, she stated, then set off in the direction of the stairs. ‘You guys coming?’ she shouted back to Lexi and Rowan, as they jumped to their feet and followed after her.
The spiral stairs wound around over and over again, Lexi was guessing they must have been further underground than they realised. Eventually they could see a light beginning to seep down into the stairwell. They were almost at the top, when Rowan grabbed both of their arms and pulled them to a stop. He put his forefinger to his lips then pointed to Lexi’s sword. It was glowing again. He stepped in front of them and gestured for them to fall in behind him, against the outer wall of the stairs. They slowly ascended the last section of stairs and stepped out into a large room with an outer corridor surrounding it, lined with thick pillars, separating the passageway from the main space. They positioned themselves behind one of the pillars as they heard someone approaching nearby. A figure stepped out from the corridor into the large room. Both Rowan and Amber immediately recognised the man as the head of the Elders. Rowans shoulders relaxed a little, then suddenly tensed again, a look of terror on his face as another voice spoke. He began physically shaking and sunk against the pillar.
‘Rowan, who is it?’ Lexi whispered. His eyes were wide with horror, his skin looked pale and clammy,
‘Garrick’ he murmured. Lexi and Amber quickly grabbed Rowan by the arms and they retreated to the stairwell. Amber now looking almost as terrified as Rowan,
‘There’s only one way out of here Lexi. There are stairs at the other end of the room that lead to outside.’ She sighed deeply, ‘We need to get to that stair without being seen, I think I need to use the Amulet’ she stated. Both Lexi and Rowan nodded in agreement. Amber reached up, unclasped the trinket from around her neck and studied it. It was evident that the blue crystal in the centre would push inwards, seemingly this would then set a small dial around the edge into motion, counting down the time until the shield would run out. She looked to Lexi and Rowan,
‘Are you ready to do this?’ She questioned, they again nodded in reply. Amber placed her thumb over the crystal and pressed. The world around them turned blue, as if peering through a dome of coloured glass. They carefully and quietly made their way out of the stairwell and along the corridor opposite Garrick and the Elder. As they drew closer, they could overhear them talking.
‘I assure you your Majesty, the boy is on his way here with the human girl. They will both be disposed of upon their arrival. The throne will be yours, as we promised’, The Elder bowed deeply before Garrick. Rowan gritted his teeth, his brow furrowing in anger. Lexi took his hand and whispered into his ear,
‘Today is not the day Rowan. We will make our move when we are prepared, I promise’. She kissed his cheek, and they quietly made their way out through the front doors of the Palace, under cover of their blue veil.
Uprising
They managed to walk quite a few miles from the Palace before the veil eventually faded. They had made their way along a woodland trail, deep into the forest. As soon as the last of the blue tint was gone, they all slumped to the ground, exhausted from their hours of walking, having not truly stopped since entering the doorway in Althaea’s home. Lexi pulled out the bottle of water she had managed to save back at their encounter with the spider, all of them taking a good drink until the bottle was empty. Lexi sighed, looking at the bottle,
‘We’ll have to find somewhere to fill this up’, she pointed out, placing the empty bottle back into her bag. Amber lifted her head,
‘I know exactly where we can do that’ She stated, ‘There’s a small group of tree dwellers close to here. Mum is good friends with them. They also have excellent healers, so they may be able to help with my wing’, she smiled, a little hope clear in her voice. They all pulled themselves back onto their feet reluctantly, Amber setting off as a guide, leading them from the path and deeper into the woods.
Having walked for almost another hour, their steps were getting heavier and slower. They entered a small clearing with overhanging trees, dipping down between two banks, they made their way halfway across the open ground when there was a loud snapping sound, followed by a whoosh of air as they were surrounded by some kind of net and tossed swiftly up into the tree canopy. They hung there, their arms and legs awkwardly entwined at weird angles around each other. The clearing was deadly silent as figures began to appear on the banks surrounding them, bows drawn and aimed directly at them. Lexi began to panic,
‘Rowan, what if these are his men!’, Amber managed to free her hand and placed it on Lexi’s shoulder.
‘It’s okay’ she emphasised, ‘I recogn
ise some of them. These are the people we were looking for’. She then shouted out, as loud as she could, ‘It’s okay, we’re here peacefully. I’m Amber, Celeste’s daughter’. One of the figures ran to a thick rope tied around a tree, and swung his sword at it. As swiftly as they had flown into the air, they plummeted back to the ground with a thud. They wriggled to work their way free of the net and pulled themselves to their feet, brushing off random leaves that had clung to them. One of the figures approached, a small man, he looked approximately 40 years old. He had a stocky chest and a long black beard, his head was completely bald. As he approached, he began to smile widely,
‘Amber my dear, I haven’t seen you since you were the same hight as my knees, but I’d know that head of hair anywhere!’ He chuckled, ‘What brings you here to our neck of the woods? Surely you’re not meant to have left the Gateway?’ Amber stepped forward,
‘It’s a relief to see you Oakley’, she bowed her head slightly to him, ‘Sir, we are in great danger and seek your assistance’ she pleaded. He squinted his eyes towards Lexi and Rowan,
‘Who are your friends?’ he enquired. Amber smiled and extended her arm towards Lexi and Rowan,
‘I would like to introduce you Sir, to our late King Bastian’s Daughter, Queen Alexandra and her Guardian, Rowan’. Every figure in the forest knelt and bowed their heads. Lexi flushed with embarrassment, this is something I’m never going to get used to, she told herself. A voice suddenly entered her head, a deep female voice, Your Majesty, I believe it’s something no true Leader, gets used to, it shows good character that you don’t. Lexi, slightly panicked, began to search the small gathering for the source of the voice, but they all appeared to be male. All of a sudden, the leaves around them began to swirl with a gust of wind, but not a normal, horizontal wind, it was coming from directly above them. Lexi looked up to see the most magnificent creature descending from the sky. Her body looked much like a lion, the fur a beautiful caramel colour, which covered most of her body. Her wings were a similar colour, but with strands of silver running through the feathers. She had a large plume of feathers on her chest, that travelled up to her head, which very much resembled that of an extremely large eagle. Lexi was taking in the splendour of the creature as she landed in front of her, when her brow began to furrow. Before she had a chance to even ask the question out loud, the voice in her head came again, I can only apologise with my deepest sympathy your Majesty, for what happened the other night. Your companion had not yet been chosen by the Old Ones as your Guardian, and I was acting on information that he was a secret agent belonging to Garrick. Lexi ran at the creature,
Ignite: The Awakening Page 6