Emma had a bad feeling about this. She was in the home of the oldest villain alive, but that was not the only thing eerie about it. This place … it felt almost alive, and the Sapphire Stone …
She touched the bump in her jacket where the stone hid just underneath.
It felt colder than it ever had before.
They ran through the long, torch-lit corridor, determined to make it in and out of the tower as fast as possible and without being seen. The eerie wallpaper was as dark and depressing as the rest of the black city, along with the dark marble flooring that was so polished that Emma could see her blurred reflection as she ran.
‘Stop!’ hissed Mystic, disappearing into the shadow of a stone monument of a rider and dragon.
The other seven halted as a door at the end of the hall slowly opened. Two Dark Riders emerged – one holding a large book under his arm.
‘Through that door!’ whispered Sand urgently, pointing to his left.
As hard as they tried to appear calm and normal, they failed dramatically in pulling off the act. Luckily, the two riders on the other side of the corridor were too wrapped up in their conversation to even notice the small group fleeing to safety. Beyond the door Sand had discovered was another hallway – a shorter one – and this hall led into a room similar to the first one they encountered upon entering the fortress.
‘Now what?’ Matt glanced down at the cat. ‘Where are we?’
‘Relax,’ muttered Mystic. ‘We’re just off the main hallway. We’ll have to wait for those two riders to pass by.’
‘That could take forever,’ said Sand, ‘and I know for a fact that the centre of the tower is always crowded. It’ll be too dangerous to take that way.’
‘Then what do you propose we do?’ said Mystic coolly.
Sand nodded towards the archway on the right wall, adjacent to the wall with the exit they had just emerged from.
‘I say we take the mushroom passage,’ he replied.
‘The what passage?’ laughed Simon.
‘The mushroom passage,’ repeated Sand irately, folding his arms across his chest. ‘It’s a room not far from here that’s shaped like a mushroom.’
‘Oh,’ said Simon knowingly, nodding his head, but his smile was not gone from his face.
Sand turned away from the racer, frowning as he did so.
‘Anyway … it’s our safest bet.’
‘I don’t like gambling,’ said Matt sombrely. ‘This little shortcut of yours –’
‘Oh, I didn’t say it was a shortcut,’ cut in Sand. ‘It’s just a safer way to the top. You don’t want to be running into Dark Riders every twist and turn, do you? I can guarantee that we won’t run into anyone unexpected my way, and I’m pretty sure the passage is just through that archway.’
‘The last time I checked, the prisoners of the Black Fortress weren’t led this way through the tower,’ said Mystic, inclining his head. ‘How did you become so familiar with these hallways?’
‘A map, of course,’ answered Sand. ‘I stole it off a guard while imprisoned. I memorized it in case I ever got the chance to escape. The riders took me off to Vashgal’s dungeon before that happened, though. But here I stand,’ Sand raised his hands above his head, ‘alive and well – what any good thief would be capable of. You know, cat,’ he added, crouching down beside Mystic, ‘maybe you should take up the occupation – if you ever turn back to normal.’
Mystic scrunched up his nose. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, ‘I wouldn’t drop to your level.’
Sand only smiled. ‘My friend, being changed into a talking cat is about the lowest level you can possibly achieve.’ He jumped back up to his feet when Mystic snarled at him. ‘Easy now, I don’t growl at you.’
‘You’re a waste of time,’ snapped the cat. ‘Are you going to show us the way or not? Otherwise, we’re going to the central room – without you!’
Sand smirked and headed towards the northernmost archway. Mystic looked up at Emma with incredibly dark eyes. She smiled uneasily and shrugged.
‘Try to be nice,’ she whispered down to him.
‘I will if he does,’ growled the cat.
The group walked (Matt decided that running would probably throw them into another dangerous situation) down another corridor. A few of the torches had gone out, leaving dark spots on the floor here and there. Emma stayed close between Matt and Simon while Sand led the way. Mystic trotted softly behind, his violet eyes glowing slightly in the darkness. This hallway – unlike the other two – was not straight, but rather forked into two separate paths. One way led forward, while the other branched off towards the right.
‘That must lead to the center,’ said Mystic, peering down the right path. He glanced to the passage leading straight. ‘I fear we might become lost if we go that way, though. Thief –’ he addressed Sand without looking at him ‘– I hope you aren’t guiding us into the depths of this accursed place.’
‘Not at all,’ murmured Sand, strolling down the right corridor. ‘This way is where we’re headed.’
‘Does he know where he’s going?’ Emma whispered anxiously to Simon.
‘I hope so,’ he replied, his voice containing the tiniest hint of anxiety. She hoped it was fear, because she did not like being the only one afraid here. Even Lanai seemed more composed, and she had been whispering things about dark magic and curses the day before.
Halfway down the new hallway, two doors awaited them on either side. Each was made of silvery-coloured steel, like all the others before.
‘One of these contains the passage,’ said Sand, letting his hand fall on the handle of the left door. He looked across the hall to see the seer standing closest to the other entrance. ‘Titus, check out that room.’
Both doors pushed open at the same time, and both Sand and Titus disappeared inside each one. Some long seconds passed before Sand called out, ‘I found it!’
‘All right!’ exclaimed Simon, and – along with Matt – rushed through the open doorway to join Sand. Flynn and Lanai followed quickly after, and Mystic ran behind.
Emma had taken one step through the doorway when she realized that Titus had not returned from the other room. She turned around and headed quickly back across the hall.
‘Titus?’ she whispered. She peeked around the corner of the opening to gaze inside the dimly lit room. A fine layer of dust swirled through the glow coming from the single glass light overhead, and as she glanced at the floor, she could see Titus’s footprints thin in the collected powder. He was standing in the middle of the small room, his back turned to her, and Emma felt chills run down her spine just by looking at him.
‘T-Titus?’ she said again, louder this time. He did not answer her, so she warily stepped into the room and walked slowly towards him.
She saw now that the room was completely empty. Only a mirror hung on the back wall, cracked into eight different pieces. As she stopped just behind Titus, she could see both of their reflections staring back eight times. While her eyes were wide with fright, his were lost in some world beyond her knowledge.
‘Titus,’ she reached out to touch his shoulder, ‘we’ve found the passageway …’
He shifted slightly, but did not avert his gaze away from his reflection, which Emma found oddly disturbing.
‘Do you know what a mirror is, Emmaline Reeve?’ he asked softly. He did not, however, give her the time to answer the question. ‘It is the only thing in this world that can show us who we really are … and who we are becoming. It can give us an image of what we desire … and what we fear. A mirror … is like a gateway into our inner conscience … a gateway into our heart, and it is never wrong … yet it is never right.’ He gave a grim smile. ‘Just like time itself, a mirror alters the world.’
‘Titus, please,’ said Emma weakly. He was frightening her with his strange words. ‘We have to go.’
‘This mirror,’ he continued quietly, touching the cracks in the glass, ‘showed someone something they did not want to s
ee … or someone they did not want to be.’
The sound of footsteps came from the doorway and Emma saw Flynn hurry into the room. He grabbed Titus by the arm and yanked him away from the mirror. With a pounding heart, Emma gave one last look at her own spilt reflection and then followed the two Dragon Marauders out of the dusty room.
Flynn slammed the door shut the second Emma squeezed out through the opening.
‘What was that all about?’ demanded Flynn. He glared at Titus, whose eyes were on the floor.
‘Nothing,’ whispered the seer.
‘Titus, how many times have I told you –’
‘I know,’ snapped Titus, and he headed for the other room.
Flynn was quick to block his path. ‘What did you see?’ he asked quietly.
‘I didn’t see anything,’ replied Titus stiffly.
‘You must have seen something!’
‘I didn’t see anything,’ repeated the seer, more firmly than before. He pushed past Flynn and marched down the hall of the other room.
Flynn sighed and turned to Emma. ‘He must have said something about what he saw to you?’
Emma shook her head, but then said, ‘I don’t understand. Why isn’t Titus allowed to look into a mirror?’
‘Titus can see any future of any person by gazing into their eyes, but the only future he cannot see ... is his own,’ said Flynn quietly. ‘A mirror, however, is the only way he can look into his own eyes, the only way he can reveal his own destiny.’
‘That’s horrible,’ whispered Emma.
‘It is,’ agreed Flynn. ‘Titus ... doesn’t look into mirrors, not anymore. He is frightened of his own future, and of what he is.’ Flynn suddenly sighed in anger. ‘I think that sometimes ... sometimes he wants to see his own end. I know how stupid that sounds, but I know I’m right.’
Emma thought back to this morning, when Titus had told her about what was to come. He had said to her, To be born a seer is a horrible curse … and I wish to be rid of it soon. But not yet. I still have to amend my mistakes. She wondered now if it had some sort of different meaning, if Titus was planning something that no one else knew about.
… And I wish to be rid of it soon.
Chills travelled up Emma’s spine at the very memory of those harsh words. They could only mean one thing, and Flynn would have thought so too, if he had only heard Titus say them. But Flynn had his own reasons and beliefs towards Titus, and they were not so very different from Emma’s.
‘Come on,’ said Flynn, ending the dreadful discussion, ‘before that cat realizes you’re gone.’
~ Chapter Twenty Two ~
What Titus Saw
The mushroom passage was just as Flynn had described. A short hallway led into a half circle room where multiple bookshelves stood close to the walls and an iron stairway slanted sharply up. The floor was covered in an assortment of dark rugs, but there were no chairs to sit down in.
‘Vanyir sure has a weird way of decorating,’ commented Simon, to which Emma silently agreed. Though, Simon had missed the strangest room – the one containing the mirror. She wondered why Vanyir kept a mirror in a room by itself, or if he had just forgotten to take it down. It seemed eerie to her.
‘Aren’t you all glad we took this way?’ called Sand from the top of the stairs. He pushed open a thin door and peered around the corner. ‘All clear!’
Emma was not sure how many hallways, twists and turns they took, or how many rooms they discovered during their quest through the Black Fortress. Beyond one door was another door, and beyond every corridor was a secret route or passage that would lead them higher and higher into the tower. She had no clue as to where they were, and at some point in time, she doubted Sand knew either. They were lost within the mazelike structure, and it was as Mystic had once said: This is our last stop. There’s no turning back now. If they were discovered and caught, trying to escape would be useless. She did not want to end up captured – like Sand – and thrown into the Vashgal dungeons. How would she ever survive down there? Her heart lurched at the very thought of the pitch-black prison with no more sanity than a madhouse. She was not even sure how she managed to get this far with the little courage she possessed.
After climbing what felt like the twentieth stairway, they came across the first group of Dark Riders. The four of them – three of them males and the other a girl – were standing just outside a door that Sand insisted they had to go through in order to reach the Hall of the Riders.
‘That’s where I stayed as a prisoner,’ he explained, as the group hid just around a corner, out of the sight of the other riders. ‘I bet Vanyir has Sheena on that floor too.’
‘I hope you’re right,’ said Mystic darkly, ‘or you’ll be going down to the bottom of this tower on your own to search the dungeons for the girl. We have a more important mission to undertake while we’re here, if you haven’t already forgotten.’
‘I bet my sister will be eager to help out with that too,’ said Flynn. ‘She’ll be pretty upset when she gets out of here.’
‘Wonderful,’ mumbled Simon, ‘a girl with a temper like yours.’
Flynn was either too distracted with plotting to hear Simon or he simply chose to ignore him. ‘I’m going to search ahead for another entrance to that hallway,’ he addressed the group.
Before anyone could protest, Flynn headed down the opposite corridor, Lanai and Titus following quickly after him. Sand looked as though he was torn between leaving and staying, but then slowly lingered behind his companions.
‘I guess it’s time I took things into my own hands,’ said Matt, looking around the corner at the Dark Riders.
‘What does that mean?’ asked Simon quickly.
‘Yes, please explain yourself,’ added Mystic snappishly.
‘I – I have an idea,’ said Matt hurriedly, ‘and I don’t need anyone’s help with it. But I need you all to get out of this hallway. You have to hide until I find you.’
‘And when will that be?’ demanded Mystic.
‘As soon as I can,’ replied Matt hesitantly.
Simon looked bothered about this idea.
‘I don’t understand what you plan on doing, and if you get caught you’ll be locked up in this place forever!’ He gave his brother a wide-eyed look. ‘You and I both know that Vanyir can never die.’
‘Don’t worry about Vanyir, Simon,’ said Matt, placing a hand on his brother’s shoulder. ‘You leave him to me.’
‘Going to be a hero, are you?’ Mystic shook his head. ‘Not a very wise thing to be doing in a place like this,’ he added even more quietly, ‘and not a very wise thing to be saying, either. Do you know who you face?’
There was something about the way Mystic talked about Vanyir that Emma found somewhat suspicious … or was that just Simon’s suspicions rubbing off on her?
‘Obviously I do,’ muttered Matt. He strode two paces away from the three of them and nodded, looking at some point over their heads. ‘Follow Flynn and tell his group what I said, but don’t come looking for me. I’ll find you. Got it?’
‘Got it,’ mumbled Simon grimly. His eyes reflected someone who had just watched their entire life slip out of their hands.
Matt seemed hesitant for a moment. ‘Just trust me,’ he said quietly.
After Matt had vanished around the corner and the three of them were left to seek out the others, Simon put his hand over his face and said in a very low voice, ‘He’s going to die. After all this time, he’s practically throwing himself into death.’
Emma gave him a reassuringly pat on the shoulder.
‘It’s Matt,’ she said. ‘He always manages to conjure up some kind of plan.’
Simon was still marching to his own sad beat when they hurried down the hallway to catch up with Flynn and his followers. The thieves were standing at the dead-end of the winding corridor. Lanai’s dark eyes were fixed on the statue of a long, thin, and humanlike creature. It only had white slits for eyes, with no other facial features. A stra
nge symbol was etched into its chest. Emma too was so captivated in the statue that she barely noticed when Flynn, Titus and Sand stopped their talking.
‘Matt … he …’ Emma turned away from the sculpture, regaining her concentration when she did so, ‘he’s going to be gone for a while.’
‘What?’ blurted out Flynn. ‘Now? And in the middle of the Black Fortress?’
Emma explained Matt’s plan to them – which she did not quite understand herself – and was not surprised when Flynn exploded again.
‘Coward!’ he growled. ‘He left us all alone in this place while he skips on home, I bet!’
‘Liar!’ accused Simon, grinding his teeth together. ‘Matt would never do something like that!’
‘Maybe he’s a traitor,’ Sand added to the conversation – as if being a coward was not bad enough.
It was Mystic who defended the eldest Wheeler brother this time around.
‘I can promise that Matt hasn’t betrayed us,’ said the cat briskly, ‘and if treachery is your best guess, then you might as well stop guessing altogether.’ He tilted his head to the side. ‘Then again – as thieves – you’d know all about betrayal, now wouldn’t you?’
‘Touché,’ murmured Sand, a smile forming on his face. ‘Not bad for a cat.’
Mystic snarled through his teeth. ‘I – am – not – a – cat!’
Sand simply shrugged.
‘We have to hide,’ said Emma quickly, trying to lead them away from more arguing (Mystic looked like he wanted to add more to the conversation). ‘Matt said –’
‘And did he say that for our benefit,’ interrupted Sand, ‘or for his benefit? Think about it. To hide ourselves somewhere in this hallway would leave us in a vulnerable position for the enemy to find.’
‘Still stuck on the same note, I see,’ murmured Mystic. He raised his voice to a threatening level. ‘We do as Matt has instructed. If you care to wander elsewhere, then go right ahead. As for my group, we will stay put.’
The Secret World of Dragons Page 25