“Pippa, I’m so sorry,” she said. “It’s my fault that you died the way you did. I’m the reason those regulators were murdered, but they blamed you for it. I just… I can never tell you how sorry I am for that. I know that an apology can’t fix anything now, and I can never forgive myself for what I did. I should’ve tried harder to make things right before it was too late. You were my friend, and if I would’ve known the consequences that night then—”
“Arianna, thank you,” Pippa said, staring up towards the ceiling with a wide smile across her face. “You did fix it. You’ve just fixed everything! I never knew what was holding me back, but I guess it was you all along. Our destinies were intertwined, and I didn’t even know it.” She looked ecstatic, but Arianna couldn’t understand why.
“What do you mean?” she said, watching as Pippa gazed up towards the ceiling once more.
“I mean, I forgive you. Whatever your part was in my death, I forgive you, and you must forgive yourself. Besides, blame or no blame for some dead regulators, I broke the rules being out past curfew. They would’ve killed me anyways.”
“But why are you so happy? They tortured you!”
“Because now I can be free of this place,” said Pippa. She closed her eyes and lifted her arms to the ceiling.
Arianna watched, astounded at the display as Pippa’s ghost turned into a sparkling display of white light before it vanished into nothingness. She heard the faintest remnants of a familiar song linger in the air, and she beamed knowing with all her heart that Pippa’s soul flew free. Relief rained down on her, and her mind seemed lighter somehow. A smiling Pippa replaced the memory of her body strewn across the Pit, and her last words replaced the memory of their fight before she died. For a moment, everything seemed better with her conscience cleared.
As the dark settled all around her, Arianna’s happiness began to dim. With Pippa gone, she realized she no longer had a guide to her friends. Pulling her hood up over head, she continued down the same path, hopelessness weighing her down with every footstep.
After a painfully long while, Arianna noticed the darkness start to lift and, for once, wished that her imagination played no part in it. She squinted her eyes to see the cause and saw a soft glow growing up ahead. Pushing aside all of her worries, she started running at full speed towards the light.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
THE DOOR
Arianna came to a sudden halt, her eyes raised to the ceiling as the charmed path came back into view. In her moments of pause, she stilled, terrified as she felt something land on her back. Instead of some new terror, as she was sure it might be, Sano popped his head around her shoulder. Letting out a cheer, she gave him a gentle hug, feeling his soft fur on her cheek. “Sano, so good to see you.”
Sano snuggled against her chest for a second before jumping back to the floor. With no warning, he began scampering further down the lighted tunnel. “Wait, come back here!” she said, chasing the sporadic animal. “Lessa will have my head if I lose you twice.”
She ran to catch up, but every time she came close to scooping him back up into her arms, Sano would dodge the attempts. So as to never lose sight of him, her eyes kept averted to the ground.
“Come here!” she said through clenched teeth as she bent over once more to try and catch him. Stretching her hands out, the monkey again slipped through her grasp, dodging to the side. Arianna lost her balance and fell to her hands and knees, the impact jolting all the bones in her body as ringlets of tangled curls covered her eyes. With dirtied palms, she stroked her hair back behind her ears. Freeing her vision, a pair of black boots met her gaze. Stumbling backwards was her first reaction, but she didn’t have much time to be scared.
“Arianna! There you are,” said Jeom. “We thought we’d never find you.” He lifted her from the floor and pulled her up into a tight embrace, her toes skimming the ground.
Before Jeom could set her back on her feet, Lessa flew around the corner. She piled on top of the two, pulling them both into her arms. “Oh, Ara, we were so worried. How could you do that that me!” she said through tears.
Arianna tried to make her voice heard even though her face buried in Jeom’s robes. “I couldn’t think of another way,” she said.
Lessa stepped back, wiping her face, and Jeom let Arianna go.
“I’m so happy you’re both safe,” she said, blushing. “But the other regulators… are they still here?”
“Don’t insult me! I handled them,” said Jeom with his hands on his hips.
Lessa scoffed, nudging him in the ribs. “We handled them,” she said. “I can’t believe you would do that! It wasn’t long before we realized you weren’t behind us anymore, and we turned back to search for you. The two regulators following gave us a few bruises, but, when all that was over, you and the general were gone.” Lessa grimaced, trying to control her returning anger at Arianna for leaving them behind. “Here, we grabbed your things.” She tossed Arianna the pack she had forgotten at the battle scene.
Jeom set a hand on her shoulder. “We shouldn’t separate again. We’re stronger as a team… in this together.”
Arianna nodded, feeling guilty. “I really am sorry,” she said. “At least we’re together now.” She strung her arm through Lessa’s, and the three began their journey again, mustering all of the courage they could to reach their goal.
“So, what happened?” said Jeom as he marched behind the girls. “Where’s the general?”
“That’s a very long story,” said Arianna as she tried to recall all the strange happenings that occurred in the absence of her friends.
“Unfortunately, I think we have plenty of time,” Lessa said, rocking Sano is her arms.
Arianna retold the tale of her adventure in the Tombs of Blancoren, of the ghosts and General Ivo, and of all she had learned about the afterlife. Lessa and Jeom stayed speechless until she finished, and even for quite some time thereafter.
“Somebody say something, please,” said Arianna.
Jeom cleared his throat. “Told you so.”
After spending the rest of the day walking and running along their guided path, they came to a stop as another obstacle materialized before them. The trail morphed into an enormous, dust-like, emerald wall blocking their path. It seemed as if one of the jade stones from their utopia had been struck by lightning and exploded into this brilliant green blanket, surging with electricity and creating a fence at the end of the tunnel.
Jeom’s mouth dropped open as he stared at the blinding barrier. “What do we do now?” he said in a slow voice, trying to release himself from the stupor. “It looks like just another dead end.” He seemed both flustered and astounded as the sparkling light reflected in his unblinking eyes. His voice trembled, “We should go back.”
“Go back where?” said Arianna. “Something tells me this is exactly what we asked for.” She stepped nearer to the wall, feeling just as bewildered and awestricken by the scene. “What do you say, Les? Should we turn back?”
Lessa looked down at the map Arianna had given her from Mundar’s possessions. “Well, we do have the map.” She cocked her head to the side, tearing her eyes away from the wall to glance at Arianna. “But my curiosity is just so…” She edged closer to the electric wall with her fingers outstretched.
“Me too,” said Arianna as Lessa reached for her hand.
The two girls locked hands and stepped through the barrier, leaving Jeom behind.
As they moved through the wall, they felt their bodies tingle as the static light tickled their nerves. Their hair and robes floated all around them, and Sano’s fur stood on edge as the electricity tingled their skin in a pleasant sensation. Within a flash they transported to the other side, standing before a stone wall.
All traces of the emerald barrier vanished, their hair and clothes settled back smoothly around them. Even Sano looked like he had just been groomed, although his carroty eyes bulged in anxiety. The girls stared at the wall, waiting with nervous expressions. “He’ll
be furious,” said Lessa, fidgeting.
“I don’t care. That was absolutely amazing,” said Arianna, contemplating life.
Not a minute passed before Jeom appeared in front of them with a fire burning in his eyes.
“What the Hell was that!? You just jump through a bloody magic wall without so much as a warning?” he said, balling his fists and brandishing his axe around in their faces. “We could’ve been vaporized!”
“Sorry,” they said in unison, shrinking back.
“We just wanted to see what was on the other side,” said Lessa in her charming voice, trying to reel in Jeom’s fury.
“We knew you would follow,” said Arianna.
He calmed a little as he recognized the unrelenting curiosity of his friends as no fault of their own, but then his eyes grew wide as he gazed past them. Choking on his anger, all of his attention focused elsewhere. Arianna saw the amazement glowing in his eyes, and the girls turned to follow suit. For what seemed like ages, everybody stood in mesmerized silence, taking in the spectacular view.
“Next time, I’ll be more specific,” whispered Lessa as everyone continued to stare with drool dripping from their gaping mouths.
“Where are we?” asked Jeom.
The air tasted thick as a subtle smell stung their noses, and the stench seemed familiar, but they pushed it aside to admire the view. As Jeom held the lantern high above his head, the light of the firebugs spilled all around them in a flood that washed away all signs of the darkness. It seemed eerie how far the light stretched, but Arianna knew well the creatures which filled the lantern. Banded together, they could brighten any darkness for as far as it reached unlike that of an ordinary fire.
Arianna tried to make sense of their new location. A huge dome encircled them by miles, big enough to be one of the districts. The bland, stone walls must have reached to the tip of the tallest peak of Blancoren. Craning her neck, she found it impossible to even see where it stopped as the dome narrowed inwards. Through the middle of the chamber, two rows of crumbling stone columns rose to sustain the lower parts of the ceiling, making a wide open hallway which cut straight down the middle from where they stood.
Along the walls of the massive room, maybe fifty or so muddy tunnels branched away to unknown destinations. Arianna scanned the area, letting her eyes run free in their search for knowledge. She paused, blinking twice before she realized what she saw to be true. “There’s a door!” she said, her voice echoing off the walls.
The door seemed normal at first glance, but with a second and a third she saw it to be touched by magic. It centered in perfect placement between the first set of columns and crafted of the same dull-brown wood with a bronze doorknob to twist, just as any other. But, unlike just any ordinary wooden door, this one was attached to nothing but thin air.
Arianna’s curiosity again bested her wary intuition, and she felt her feet moving forward, wanting to test the durability of such an incomprehensible contraption. Lessa followed at her heels without any persuasion whereas Jeom stood back to watch from a distance, the two girls inspecting the enigmatic door.
Arianna first tested its durability to see if it would fall over without anything holding it up, but when she pressed her hand against the grained wood, it stayed sturdy as stone. “I don’t understand,” she said as she looked to Lessa for answers.
Without warning, Lessa threw her whole body against the wood, trying to get it to budge. She groaned, rubbing her shoulder.
“Really?” said Arianna, shaking her head.
“That’s a fine door,” said Jeom as he gathered enough courage to inspect it himself. “It’s perfectly carved, four inches on all sides, and a smooth finish. Fine door.” He whistled as he rubbed it.
Almost simultaneously, they stuck their heads around to the other side to see if it really attached to nothing, but they met the same stubborn entrance to nowhere which stood without strings.
“There’s another!” said Jeom, taking Arianna’s hand and spinning her around to face the other direction.
Just as the large, wooden door propped upright between the first set of columns, the second set also held a door of its own. This one crafted of the solid gray stone Arianna felt so accustomed to seeing in the Warrior’s District.
As they continued through the hallway of columns, they passed more and more doors, each centered between the parallel pillars. They were crafted of all sorts of material, each with their own untold story. Some stood twelve feet tall while others seemed meant for only children. One appeared in the normal rectangular fashion, yet others in the shapes of circles, diamonds, or squares. Many were constructed of wood or colored stone and others of metal or…
“Gold!” said Jeom, dragging his feet across the dusted, sandstone floor. He moved in a daze to where a large gilded door hinged into the air between the last two pillars, ending the long walkway. Flecks of gold melted into his brown eyes as he stretched his arm out to twist the lustrous knob.
“Wait,” said Lessa as she tugged on his robes. “We need to be careful!”
Too late the words spilled out of her mouth. Jeom rested his hand on the door to pull. He tugged with all his might, but the door wouldn’t budge. Not wanting to give up his pot of gold without a fight, he swung his axe at the handle.
The metal made a piercing sound that echoed in all corners of the room. Arianna lifted her hands to her ears, reminded of the bell. She watched as Jeom tried the doorknob again and again, but the door stayed locked tight. Moreover, the knob glowed a menacing red as Jeom yanked his hand back screaming in agony.
“Argh, it burned me!” he shouted as he dropped his axe from the other hand, squeezing at the wrist of his scorched palm to relieve some of the pain. “What do I do? What do I do?” he said as unbidden tears began to stream from his eyes. The wound throbbed, and the skin on his palm sizzled. Bubbling from the sudden heat, it looked as if it would melt off at any second.
“Here let me,” said Lessa, hurrying for her pack.
Jeom leaned his back against the door and slid to the floor as she pulled out one of the tubes Cyn gifted them for their journey.
The liquid inside looked dark red like congealed blood, and Lessa knew exactly what to do with it. “It’s prillyberry juice,” she said. “And it’s already mixed to perfection, so you’re in luck!” Inspecting it further, she tested some between her fingers. “This will only sting for a moment, but try and be still.”
He nodded, fidgeting from the pain.
Taking Jeom’s blistered hand in hers, she let a few drops fall onto the skin. As it dissolved into his flesh, she felt his whole body tense and watched guiltily as he clenched his teeth from the sudden, all-new kind of pain.
“I thought this was supposed to help?” he whined in gasps as the medicine worked its way around his hand.
“Hush, I need to concentrate.” Her eyes closed.
Arianna paid close attention as their healer began to recite the words Talis had drilled into her head so many times from a life that started to seem like a dream. “Helthra saludis emencia,” she said in no louder than a whisper.
She repeated the phrase over and over until she could feel Jeom’s body relax. When she opened her eyes, his hand looked almost normal but for a scar.
“Hopefully this scar will teach you a lesson,” said Lessa, smacking him on the forehead. “What were you thinking? We just walked through a magical wall into a room with floating doors… You’d think that might be warning sign enough, but no. Let’s go throw axes around the enchanted room and piss it off.” She pursed her lips and let his hand fall back to his side.
He lifted it in examination. “Thank you,” he said.
“You’re an imbecile,” she replied, but he just flashed her that white-tooth grin.
Arianna had walked off back in the direction of the other doors, and Lessa blanched as she wriggled more doorknobs. “Are you mad?” she said.
Arianna already made her way several feet away from her friends. “They’
re all locked with magic,” she said. “The unlock charm didn’t work, but I think I know what to do.” She started testing all of the doors they passed before Jeom injured himself.
“Excuse me, miss,” said Jeom, “but my hand nearly liquefied. Or don’t you remember?” He grabbed her wrist and forced her to stop midair as her hand reached to test yet another door.
“Yes, well I just tried about five others with no noticeable injuries. I’m not trying to force my way in as you did. I’m sure the old-fashioned way will work just fine,” she said, shaking free of his grasp and turning the doorknob in front of her.
Jeom flinched as her skin made contact with the metal, but nothing happened.
“You may think me insane, but I have a feeling we need to start from the beginning,” said Arianna.
“You’re insane,” said Lessa as she and Jeom chased after her.
Arianna came to an abrupt stop as soon as she reached the back entrance of the simple, wooden door. She circled it to the front with her two friends by her side. “We might as well try,” she said, impatient. “If it doesn’t work, we can have a look through those tunnels, but I’d really like to know what the secret is behind these doors. If it’s worth hiding, then I think it’s worth finding.” Her voice purred and a dangerous gleam sparkled in her eyes.
“The door option has my vote as well,” said Lessa, swayed by her own interest. Arianna gave her a critical look as she played with Sano’s tail. “What? I’m just really bored of this whole endless-maze-of-tunnels nonsense. Besides, what’s life without a little risk? You taught me that.” She pumped her fist in the air.
“Enslavement,” said Jeom, howling in laughter. “Okay, you’ve convinced me. I could use a break from the haunted tunnels too.”
Before any more words could be exchanged to delay Arianna’s decision, she placed her hand on the cool bronze of the doorknob and twisted it. She heard a click, and the door creaked open with an eerie screech.
Instead of stepping through the threshold to the other side of the pillared hallway as she half expected, Arianna found herself standing in a large square room built of the same wood as the door. The room drank up the light of the lantern as if it had been lifeless for years. As the three moved inside, one after the other, thick dust billowed around their feet from the wood-paneled floor, and the door shut behind them.
Belvedor and the Four Corners (Belvedor Saga Book 1) Page 27