“Now,” continued Kityy. “We could storm the tower’s front gates, but that’s suicide. Besides, there are hidden back paths to enter the tower. Old refuse tunnels, mostly.” She prodded at a particular spot with her paw. “And all of those tunnels empty out into this here Decarinth.”
“Excellent,” I exhaled.
Things were looking up.
Kitty poked at another spot on the floor with her paw. “Possibly. Kronos knows the Decarinth holds all the sneaky back ways into his precious Bezel Tower, so he changed the Decarinth. It kills off all life in the maze at the count of ten.”
“That sucks,” said Myla flatly.
“Four,” said Lincoln.
My heart beat harder against my rib cage. I knelt down beside Kitty. “Anything we can do to help you find this entrance to the tunnels?”
Kitty stalked along a few more steps before speaking. “Can any of you cast any magick?”
“Elea and I are mages,” said Rowan. “But we’re low on power. We’d like to save it for Kronos.”
“In that case,” said Kitty. “The best thing you can do is be patient.”
Atop the wall, Tank leapt up and town, waving his thin arms around once more. Kitty looked up and watched him for a moment. “You’re no help to me here, Tank. Get the other Springlets and have them prepare to storm the front gate to the Bezel tower.” She shot me a sly look. “We’ll need a distraction if we’re going to get access to Kronos.”
Tank scaled the wall once more before disappearing over the top edge of the maze. For a moment when Tank was near, I felt that sensation again: the pull of magick. Once more, the feeling was gone before I could place it accurately. Besides, what was important right now was not that Tank may have some magickal residue.
It was getting out of the decarinth alive.
I focused my attention on Kitty. “You sent Tank away?”
“Yes,” she meowed.
“But you just told us,” I continued. “Anyone storming the front gate would be killed.”
Kitty looked at me, tilting her head in a mechanical click. “That’s right. Killed and turned into spare parts to make a new Oculus Warrior.”
“But you can’t do that.” I stepped closer to Kitty. “Why would you all risk your life for us?”
Kitty’s mechanical tail flicked behind her in a stuttering rhythm. “Because dying to us means different things than it does to you.”
“Death is death,” I said. “I don’t understand.”
“Really now?” asked Kitty. “How can you say that when nothing is the same to you as it is to others? The same is true of Springlets.”
A chill crawled up my neck. “What do you mean?”
Kitty grinned, showing off a mouth full of sharp metal teeth. “I’ve met your parents, Elea of Braddock. They said you’d be arriving in Quetum in order to kill Kronos and rescue your Jicho.”
All the breath left my body. “You know my parents?”
Kitty nodded. “They are freedom fighters. Why do you think Tank and I were waiting for you? Your parents have eyes and ears in the Bezel Tower. They heard you were coming. We have Springlets all over Quetum on the lookout for you.”
Lincoln stared solemnly at Kitty. I could almost picture the plans and facts whirring through his brain. “So how did you get so lucky? You chose the exact spot where we landed.”
“That was all Tank. He knows things. For example, Tank knows that there won’t be any Oculus Warriors patrolling this area for another ten minutes.” Lowering into a crouch, Kitty let out a mechanical hiss. “Now quiet down, all of you. The clocks are down to two. I need to concentrate.” Her next words sent pangs of worry through me. “Time is running out.”
All the clocks were marked with numerals from ten to zero. A single hand on their faces marked the countdown. With a soft tick, all the clock hands now switched to one.
Time was running out, indeed.
Chapter Seven
I couldn’t believe it. All the clocks in the decarinth were now pointing to the numeral one. Once they all went to zero, that was it. Some exotic form of death awaited us, according to Kitty.
Speaking of Kitty, she kept sauntering down the decarinth, tapping her metal claws onto various watch faces.
Click, click, click.
I bit my lips together to stop my self from screaming.
Kitty paused before the right-hand decarinth wall. Tilting her head, she eyed a huge glass watch face set into the panel. Once again, she tapped the round surface with her claws.
Click, click, click.
Shaking her head, Kitty approached the next clock face on the wall. This one was smaller than the last, but still fairly large compared to most. Kitty slammed her claws against the glass covering.
CLANG.
While all her other taps were muted sounds, this one echoed. A weight I didn’t know I’d been carrying seemed to slip from my shoulders. There was no doubt about it: some kind of empty space waited behind that watch face. I popped my hands over my mouth to stop myself from cheering. Tank had said the Oculus Warriors patrolled this area. I didn’t want to call any unnecessary attention.
“And here’s a passageway,” purred Kitty. She looked over her shoulder at the four of us. “I’ll need some help to open this.”
“I’m on it.” Myla raced over. Moving with supernatural speed, she jammed the arrowhead end of her tail jammed into the edge of the watch face. With a snap, the face flicked out an inch. Myla then crammed her fingers into the opening and yanked the clock face off to one side. “I don’t know how long that will hold open. It looks like it’s set to snap back in place.”
Stepping closer, I peered over Myla’s shoulder. Sure enough, a tunnel opened up into the wall. The clock face itself stood about three feet high, and the passage appeared to be that tall as well.
Kitty hopped into the tunnel’s mouth. Her gear eyes lit up in the darkness as she scanned the interior. “On second thought, maybe we should find another passageway.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Kitty mewled. “This one will lead out to—”
At that moment, alarms of every kind began to buzz, ring, or wail. A thousand watch faces vibrated along the walls and floor of the decarinth. My heart sank. The clocks had reached the same time.
Zero.
The maze floor rumbled. I sucked in a shaky breath. Something was coming nearer. Kitty stood at the tunnel entrance and hissed. “This won’t do. We must find another passage.”
“That’s fascinating,” said Myla. “Now get into the tunnel already.”
“No!” cried Kitty,
Suddenly, a clock gear as tall as Rowan came rolling down the center of the maze. It was like some kind of insane wagon wheel, only one with razor-sharp edges. I pictured the small round saw blades that had been attached to the Oculus Warrior’s antennae. These looked just as deadly, only at a far greater scale. The gear rumbled past us. Everyone flattened themselves against the nearest wall.
We’d survived so far, but the rumbling under our feet grew more fierce.
More deadly gears were coming.
“Well?” Myla glared at Kitty.
“On second thought,” said Kitty. “I think this tunnel is perfect.” She turned about and scampered off into the darkness.
The rumbling grew stronger. This time, a mechanical whir filled the air as well. A second later, two more deadly gears rolled by. This time, the gears were concentrated by the right-hand wall. We all flattened ourselves by the left wall, which was farther away from our escape route.
“Come on,” cried Rowan after the gears passed. “Everyone move. Now!”
The next few seconds were a flurry of moving bodies and a cramped passageway.
Myla slipped into the tunnel.
Then Lincoln.
The floor vibrated with more force than ever before. The mechanical whir became deafening. I looked to Rowan, ready to tell him to go in next.
“Don’t even think about it.” Rowan gripped my wai
st and hoisted me into the passage. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a glint of metal as a dozen deadly gears spun toward us.
Once I got inside the tunnel, I found that it was about two feet deep before it opened up into a large corridor. The moment my feet hit the floor, I spun around, grabbed Rowan’s wrists and hauled him inside. He yelled as I pulled him in.
Once Rowan was in my arms again, I began to pat down his body, just like he’d done to me after he healed my arm. In all truth, I may have been a little more frantic about the whole business than he’d been.
“Are you all right?” I asked breathlessly.
“I lost a shoelace,” said Rowan dryly. “That’s it.”
Leaping up, I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him with everything I had inside me. “I never want to be scared like that again.”
“That makes two of us,” Rowan said with a low chuckle.
Outside, the clock face let out a series of low hisses before snapping back into place. A heartbeat later, we were all encased in perfect darkness.
Kitty hissed. “I can’t see in the dark. I’m not that kind of cat! Now, what do we do?”
Jicho’s prophecy echoed in my mind. Fire swords. “Don’t worry, Kitty. I think Myla and Lincoln can help.”
“We can?” asked Myla. “Oh, that’s right. We totally can. I just got so caught up with the killer saw blade festival, I forgot both Lincoln and I have our baculum.”
“Baculum?” asked Rowan.
“Short metal rods that Myla and I can ignite into any kind of weapon made from angelfire.” As Lincoln spoke the words, a torch of white flame appeared in his hand. He pointed to the two silver rods at the base. “This is the baculum. They don’t always have to be a sword.” He shot a sly smile at Myla. “Amazing how many times we’re scurrying around in the darkness, using these as torches.”
Myla rolled her eyes. “Someone should write a book.” After that, her own torch ignited in her hands. She looked around the passageway. “Here, Kitty, Kitty.”
The cat leapt in front of Myla and hissed. “I hate that joke.” She sniffed. “Now follow me.” She sauntered off a few yards ahead and paused. “What are you waiting for?”
I couldn’t speak for everyone else, but I knew what was making me cautious. “You didn’t seem too excited about this passageway before.” I scanned the walls. Everything was made from rusted metal. “What’s wrong with this tunnel?”
“Oh that,” Kitty sighed. “This passage leads only to two destinations. First, you can tumble right into an incinerator.”
“I’ll pass,” said Myla. I completely agreed with her sentiment.
“Second,” said Kitty. “You can open an access door to a barracks for the Oculus Warriors.”
An image appeared in my mind: a dozen antennae with mini-saw endings. Those Oculus Warriors hadn’t even attacked and I was terrified of them. Those things were the stuff of nightmares.
Even so, I forced on my calmest face. “Then we’re off to the barracks.”
That may have been what I said, but as we all followed Kitty deeper into the tunnels, I started to wonder something.
Maybe we had a better chance of survival with the incinerator instead.
Chapter Eight
Hours passed and we were all still marching through those tunnels. It wasn’t an easy journey, either. Every so often, the passageway would click and shimmy. That’s when kitty would mewl and tell us which wall to flatten ourselves against. After that, the tunnel would split into two. We’d stay on whatever said Kitty said did not end in a fiery death. Myla commented that that the whole thing seemed a little unncessary. Kitty explained that it was another one of Kronos’s failsafe measures to keep people out of the Bezel Tower. I was starting to wonder what kind of person even thought up such twisted security. Choose the wrong split in the tunnel and you get dumped into an incinerator?
Kronos gave cruel an entirely new meaning.
After a while, we started to chat a little. I debated about sharing the whole pregnancy revelation with Rowan, but then decided against it. I didn’t want him to learn about our baby in a darkened tunnel with strangers nearby.
Instead of having the baby conversation, we asked Kitty a ton of questions about the Bezel Tower. She and Kronos had been designed to keep the tower, which is why she knew so much about how to sneak in and out. The said the Bezel Wand was supposed to go straight into the floor on the Control Room, but Kronos had figured out a way to pry it out, carry it around, and wield its magick. After that revelation, Kitty stated that she was done answering questions. She added that she’d already broken her feline vows by being as helpful as she had already. I had a cat of my own back home, so I understood.
With Kitty being nonresponsive, I then asked Myla more about angels and demons, a topic that both Rowan and I found fascinating. Turns out, Myla is part demon and Lincoln is part angel. I couldn’t believe that. In fact, the news made me pause in my steps.
“So you’re part demon,” I said.
“Yup,” replied Myla.
“And your tail is demonic as well?”
“Sure is.” In the flickering torchlight, I could see Myla’s tail waving at me, so I waved right back. I liked Myla’s tail, too.
I cleared my throat and tried to sound casual. “So you and Lincoln have a son.”
“His name’s Maxon,” answered Lincoln. Even in the darkness f the tunnel, there was no missing the smile in Lincoln’s voice as he said his son’s name.
“We didn’t plan on having a kid right away,” said Myla. “But it all worked out.”
“So you wanted a child?” I asked.
“Why not?” asked Myla.
“Well…” I gestured at her tail.
“Oh, the demon thing. It’s not that simple. I’m aligned to what we call deadly sins. In my case, that’s lust and wrath. Those can be good things in the right situations.” Her and Lincoln shared a small smile. “A bloodline is what you make of it.”
On reflex, my gaze swung to Rowan. He stood outlined in the tunnel, fixing me with a penetrating stare that could melt rock to lava. Did he guess why I was so curious about demons and babies? Again, this wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have among strangers. I panicked. Words began tumbling from my mouth with no prior examination from my brain.
“Not that I have any reason to be curious personally,” I added quickly. “Just asking in general. I find blood…and such things…utterly fascinating.”
Stop talking, Elea.
Rowan’s haze stayed fixed on me. I felt like a bug on a pin.
“I have a question for you,” said Kitty.
Thankful for the reprieve, I turned my back to Rowan and focused on Kitty. Besides, it was nice that she’d decided to talk to us again. “Of course, you can ask me anything.”
Kitty swung her head around to face me. Her gear shaped eyes reflected the torchlight as she spoke. “What I wish to know is this. What do you think of your bloodline?”
Bloodline. The word echoed through me in strange ways. Fresh bands of exhaustion wrapped around my body. My legs turned watery.
In all truth, my bloodline was nothing but a legacy of evil.
Thankfully, there were no torches near me. Otherwise, everyone could have noticed how all the color had drained from my face. Kitty thought my parents were freedom fighters. Meanwhile, I knew them as two people who wanted to kill me.
“Bloodline?” I swallowed past the lump of disgust that had lodged in my throat. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Your parents have promised us freedom.” With a series of small clicks, Kitty tilted her head. “Do you think they’ll keep their word? Kronos tore apart my people for spare parts to make his Oculus Warriors. Now, we Springlets plan to storm the gate and cause a diversion, just so you have better odds when you fight Kronos. Tell me honestly. Do you think our sacrifice will be worth it?”
The truth fell from me in a jumble. “Honestly, I can’t speak for my parents, only myself. We’ve
promised to kill Kronos, and we will do that.”
Kitty let out a staccato hiss. “Fine.” With that, she turned on her paws and scampered off into the darkness. My heart sank.
That wasn’t the reaction I was looking for.
I opened my mouth, ready to start a discussion about what we should do next. Lincoln set his finger over his lips and mouthed the word quiet. We waited silently. The scent of grease filled the tunnel, followed by soft clicks and whirs.
The hairs on my arms stood on end. I’d heard those noises before.
Oculus Warriors.
We’d reached their barracks.
At this point, I realized that everyone was starting at me. My mouth was still open, ready to speak. I looked to Rowan and whispered. “How much time do we have before midnight?”
With any luck, the strange time phenomenon at Quetum would start to work in our favor. Perhaps we had hours to kill. If nothing else, we could wait a little while and try to pull in some more magick. Just because the Oculus Warriors were here, it that didn’t mean we had to rush into death.
Rowan stared at his pocket watch and squinted. “We’ve one hour left before the deadline.”
Disappointment and fear pressed onto my shoulders, heavy as stones. “One hour,” I said in a low voice. “That means there’s no time to lose. What do you wall think? Should we go into the barracks?”
Lincoln nodded.
Myla smiled.
Rowan stared at the tunnel ahead as if the intensity of his gaze might force Jicho to materialize out of thin air. I took that to mean yes, so I began tiptoeing down the last leg of the tunnel. All three of my companions followed behind.
Oculus Warriors, here we come.
Chapter Nine
Rowan and I stood at the end of the access tunnel. Myla and Lincoln waited behind us, holding their torches. Kitty was still nowhere to be found.
A rusted access door loomed before me.
I set my ear against the metal. On the other side, there sounded a familiar chorus of mechanical whirs and clicks.
Oculus Warriors.
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