by MJ Fletcher
“Thanks, after that scene I think I’ll need a place to sleep from now on.” I knelt beside her and she rested her head on my shoulder.
“Now what do you have there?”
Val lifted up a satchel that I immediately recognized as Edgar’s. I grabbed it, pulled it open and shoving my hand in I felt around. Sure enough it was filled with maps and all his tools for mapmaking.
“How come you have this?”
“Edgar came to me before you two left and switched his bag out saying he needed the space to carry something very powerful and didn’t know how it would affect his equipment so he wanted me to keep it safe.” She bit her lip and I hoped she realized just how much it meant for Edgar to have left his most prized possessions in her care. From the look on her face, I imagined she did.
“This is great.” I shuffled around in the bag and pulled out a handful of maps.
“Will this help you find the Mapmakers?”
“I hope so.” I unrolled the first map and gave it a once over. It was the interior of the Infinity Library. I tucked it away and tried another, this process taking some time as I went through each of Edgar’s maps attempting to find the correct one.
Then I opened one of the Paladin Academy and as I was about to put it away I noticed a curious mark on the Legend. I stared at it and saw that there was a small circle with a quill inside of it and around its edges were symbols... the marks of the Mapmakers.
“That’s it.” I smiled to myself and Val looked over my shoulder trying to figure out what I was talking about.
“What?”
“The symbols contain the coordinates for the Mapmakers dimension. They’re using it as a point of reference hidden within the Legend. I can use that to find their dimension and get to Edgar.”
“Let’s do it then,” Val said standing up.
I shook my head. “You can’t come, Val.”
“Why not?”
“It’s against the rules.”
“You mean like you breaking into their dimension to save Edgar or all the other stuff you guys do that you don’t tell me about. No—not this—time, I am not staying behind. He’s my boyfriend and I’m going with you and that’s final.”
I wanted to argue with her but she was right about everything.
“Val,” I pleaded.
“No, I’ve seen what you all deal with, I’m well aware of the dangers and I’m willing to take the risk. I’m not being left behind this time.”
I took a deep breath and tried to think of an argument that would work and realized there wasn’t one. If someone was trying to keep me from helping Nightshade or Slade it wouldn’t matter, I would still do it... just like I was about to do for Edgar.”
“Okay, you win you can come with me.”
“Good, then let’s go get my boyfriend.”
Chapter Thirty-six
Status: Here we go again.
“Wow, that was crazy,” Val said loudly as she leaned over, her hands on her knees taking deep breaths.
I closed the portal behind us and looked around surveying our situation. We were on a cobblestone pathway that wrapped around a series of hedgerows. I had no idea what was on the other side, but I imagined that in there somewhere were animal topiaries that could be animated to chase us down. It wouldn’t be the first time it happened to me.
“Val, keep it down,” I urged in a whisper as I gripped my doorknob tightly and considered activating it just in case.
“Oh, right, sorry.” She stood upright, her voice low.
“Let’s follow the path and make sure to be on the lookout for guards.”
Val nodded and gave thumbs up as we walked down the path passed the massive hedges.
It took us fifteen minutes before the cobblestone path broke off into two directions, one leading into another series of hedges and the other to what appeared an open field.
“Which way?” Val asked.
“I’m sick of bushes, this way.” I pointed to the open area and started up the incline. We crested the top of it and looked down on an open field that carried on as far as the eye could see. In all directions there were different mazes some of hedgerows, others of stone, and then those made of metal. People strolled casually throughout each of them. My shoulders drooped burden by what appeared a near impossible task. We might have made it here, but I had no idea how to find Edgar.
“Confusing isn’t it?” I spun to find Jeremiah standing beside us. He was one of the leaders of the Mapmakers and I hadn’t seen him since I had first discovered the Legend over a year ago.
“Um, yeah it is.”
“It’s always that way when you first come here, though it gets easier with each visit until you finally start to see the patterns behind the dimension.”
“Who is that?” Val whispered after leaning in close to me and I nudged her to be quiet.
“I assume you came for Edgar? Or are you here to turn yourself in for the theft of the Legend?” He didn’t say it accusingly; he sounded almost amused.
“I’m here for Edgar; he didn’t do anything wrong.”
“So a character witness in his trial then, though I imagine the jury won’t look well on the fact that you were supposedly his accomplice in the theft.”
“I won’t let him take the fall for this; it’s the First Kind’s fault. We never meant to steal the Legend. We needed to use it, but then the First Kind showed up, thanks to Faith.” I nearly spit out the last part.
“There are many who want to expel Edgar from the Union, others would prefer to see him go to prison, and then there is the matter of you.”
“What about me?”
“The Mapmakers Union has always been neutral in disputes between the other Societies. However, due to this debacle I was forced to call off the truce between the Mapmakers Union and DS. Many of our members blame you for that.”
“What do you plan to do?”
“Honestly, I was planning on looking for an alternative to all of my options and you having shown up here, has just given me one.” He smiled.
“How so?”
His smile grew quite wide. “I’m going to let you break Edgar out so that I don’t have to go through with this sham trial, and then you are going to get me back the Legend.”
“Oh, is that all?” I asked, though I was willing to take whatever I could get to free Edgar.
“I was there when you returned the Legend to our Society. If you had wanted it for yourself, you would have never informed us that you had found it. You did the right thing then and I believe you will do so again. Plus, I would hate to lose Edgar from the Union. He’s a genius and I expect extraordinary things from him.”
“There is something else.” I didn’t want to keep anything from Jeremiah that could hurt the Mapmakers.
“What?”
“The First Kind is coming for Edgar. They need him to activate and use the Legend for them.”
His hand slid over his chin and his eyes narrowed in concentration. “You think they would dare to come here and attack us?”
“There isn’t anything they won’t try or any person they won’t use to help them accomplish their goals.”
“Then we need to hurry, follow me.”
Jeremiah started off down a winding path and Val and I trailed directly behind him. We came upon one of the numerous mazes and he stopped at a stone wall. He lifted his finger to trace a symbol on the wall and the stones shifted to the side.
A guard stood on the other side and stepped forward, Jeremiah waved him off. We stepped past the stone wall into a corridor with a rug underfoot. The walls were old fashioned mahogany panels polished to a shine. A series of windows ran along one side of the hallway with a clear view of the area where we had just been.
“This is the Union Hall isn’t it?” I’d heard of this place from Edgar. It was similar to DS’s Manor or the Wheel of the Impossible Engineers.
“It is and I believe it’s the first time a normal human has ever been here.” He glanced at Val wh
o blushed deep red.
We turned a corner and came face to face with two guards who stood on either side of a doorway.
“Sir.” They saluted in unison.
“Visitors, they have my permission.” Jeremiah waved them aside and the guards moved, and then he pushed the door open. We stepped through and there was Edgar sitting with his elbows braced on his knees and his chin resting against clenched fists. He glanced up, but before I could say anything a flash of bobbing curls ran passed me to land in his lap.
“Edgar,” Val squealed throwing her arms around him. He was just as quick to wrap his arms around her, smiling broadly and his eyes growing wide. He glanced back and forth between Jeremiah and me in disbelief.
“How?”
“Your friends came to bust you out,” Jeremiah chuckled and crossed the room to the window “If you’re right, Chloe, it means that they could be here anytime, you three need to get out of here now. I will have the guards replaced in a five minutes with people loyal to me and won’t notice you leaving. In the meantime, I need to get defenses in order.”
“What’s happening?” Edgar asked between endless hugs and kisses from Val.
“The First Kind needs you to be able to use the Legend... they’re coming for you.”
“They’re going to attack the Union Hall?” Edgar asked shocked at the news.
I nodded.
“I can’t leave,” Edgar insisted.
“What?” My jaw dropped.
“I can’t abandon the Union when they’re about to be attacked.”
“That’s very noble of you, Edgar.” Jeremiah stepped over to him placing a firm hand on his shoulder. “But that presents a larger problem. It is you they are after and we must protect you. The audacity of the First Kind to dare attack the Hall is one thing, but for them to be able to use the Legend freely is unthinkable.”
“Edgar, we have to get you out of here,” Val said wrapping her arm around his neck as if she never intended to let him go.
He turned, his eyes meeting hers and smiled. “Okay.”
“Now that it’s settled,” Jeremiah said, “give me a few minutes to change out the guards and then move. You’ll need to get out the same way you came in. Can you remember how to get back there?”
“Yes, but what about the stone wall, I can’t open that?”
“I can,” Edgar said.
“Good, once you are safely away contact your father and have him let me know. I will deal with the Union and attempt to garner support to reclaim the truces and ask the other Societies for help repelling any attacks by the First Kind.”
“You got it.” I let my hand slide into my bag and wrap around my doorknob, mentally preparing myself for what was coming.
“Good luck.” Jeremiah smiled and exited the room.
“How did you get here?” Edgar’s eyes were still wide with disbelief.
“Her.” I pointed to Val and she laughed.
“The bag you left at my house,” Val explained, “I showed it to Chloe and she found us a way here.”
Edgar beamed proudly at Val as if she had done the most brilliant thing in the world. “Where are we going to go?”
“The Reliquary for now and from there we can decide our next move,” I said.
Edgar lowered his head, a habit of his when he needed to think something over. His eyes met mine when he raised his head up and there was a hardness in them that had me worried at what he would say next.
“Was it him?”
I didn’t need to ask who he was talking about, it was Nightshade. I couldn’t bring myself to say it so I nodded.
“He’s alive?”
I nodded again.
Edgar shook his head. “That’s crazy. Nightshade would never betray us... never. “He didn’t, not on his own anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
I had to be brief and quick or else the images would invade my mind once again. “The First Kind tortured him and then used a Forget Me Not on him to turn him into their lapdog.”
Val let out a gasp, her hand covering her mouth as Edgar’s head drooped once again. Nightshade and he had been friends a lot longer than I had known either of them and his death had affected Edgar nearly as badly as it had me.
His voice was so low that we could barely hear him. “We have to help him.” “And we’re going to if it’s the last thing I do.”
“How?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll figure something out.”
“I won’t, I can’t... leave him like that.”
“Either will I, Edgar, I promise.” We locked eyes sealing a silent pact that meant we would rescue Nightshade no matter what.
“How long until the guards leave?” Val asked as she crossed the room and looked out the window.
“Any minute now,” Edgar said.
“Good, since I don’t like the look of that.” She pointed out the window to a massive black crack that shot up from one of the mazes into the sky. Waves of portal energy rolled out from it and Edgar and I looked at each other and shook our heads.
“Damn it, the First Kind is here.”
Chapter Thirty-seven
Status: Time for a fight!
“Crap this isn’t good.” I ran my hands through my hair and yanked it back wrapping it in a ponytail. It wouldn’t do any good getting in my eyes during a fight.
“What’s the plan?” Edgar’s eyes never left the crack as it spread across the sky of the Mapmaker dimension.
“We stick to the plan; we need to get the hell out of here,” I said determined to get Edgar to safety.
Outside the room screams erupted as did the distinct sound of people running. Jeremiah didn’t have nearly enough time to set up any kind of defense and people panicked as they often do in times of chaos.
I hurried to the door and opened it to see that the guards had deserted their post. Most likely assuming a full on attack took precedence over guarding a prisoner.
“Let’s go.” I waved Val and Edgar to follow me and we slipped cautiously out of the room. I didn’t waste any time, I activated my doorknob. Its energy sent shivers running up my arm as my energy whip slithered to life.
“Hope you don’t need that,” Edgar said from behind me and I hoped the same. At least that had been my plan, to make it out without a lick of trouble. Unfortunately, my plans seemed to have an abysmal success rate, though one could always hope.
The hallways of the Union Hall were filled with people rushing about either trying to shore up defenses or in a state of justified panic. Not that it would help or do any good. We quickly reached the spot where we had entered and Edgar hurried to draw a symbol on the stones. The stones creaked like rusty old door hinges that needed oiling as they slide open revealing the outside.
As soon as we stepped through I felt the energy crackling around us and the sounds of battle were not far off. Some of the Mapmakers were trying to defend the Union Hall but from the distinct scent of different Society energies that I got a whiff of, they weren’t succeeding.
“This way.” I lead our ragtag trio up the cobblestone path and over the hill toward the hedgerows.
The air around us sizzled with a multitude of energies and I tighten my grip on my doorknob. Damn, if I didn’t have a dreadful feeling that we weren’t going to make it. We stopped abruptly sensing danger behind us and I spun around bringing my whip up and snapping it out in one fluid motion.
The man on a dead-run toward us had no time to react, my whip sliced into his chest slamming him to the ground and knocking him out. But he wasn’t alone and the next attacker approached with more caution.
“Jasper.” I gritted my teeth at the sight of Faith’s boyfriend and the man who had kidnapped Val.
“Look what I found,” he said grinning with glee as if he’d just won a big prize. He glanced at each of us before settling on Val. “Hello there, Val, long time no see.”
She smiled sweetly. “Hi there, jerk-face.”
I stifled a laugh. After wi
tnessing Val’s encounter with her mother I didn’t think there would be anyone she’d let intimidate her. And I was right.
He snarled at Val, like that would do anything, and then he brought out his Doorknob and saturated it with energy. “I’ve been waiting for this.”
I circled around and positioned myself as a shield in front of Val and Edgar. This really was no time for a fight; we needed to make our escape before reinforcements showed up or we’d be captured. It would be a challenge to protect the two of them, but there was no way in hell that I was going to lose another friend.
Jasper wielded his Doorknob like a swordsman, slashing out and letting loose with a sharp blast of energy. I could play at the same game and much better. I spun my whip with skills born from practice, then cracked it hard. Easily deflecting his blast, though cursed myself for delaying in getting the hell out of Dodge fast enough.
I needed to end this fast and going on the offense was the only option. I twirled my whip in front of me as I stepped hastily toward Jasper, forcing him to back up. Then just as quickly, I shattered the ground on either side of him and fear instantly registered in his eyes as he realized my intentions... I was boxing him in. He brought his doorknob up to attack, but I was a quicker draw. With a snap of my wrist my whip cracked across his hand forcing him to drop it.
Another spin and snap of my whip and I shattered his doorknob into pieces. Energy shot out in all directions as the device released the last of its power.
Jasper’s voice lost all confidence and quivered, though he still tried to intimidate. “You’ll never win.”
“We’ll see about that.” I had my whip ready for one last shot, while Jasper’s eyes darted franticly around searching for any avenue of escape.
“Hey, jackass,” Edgar called out and Jasper turned to him just in time to catch a right hook in the jaw that spun him around and dropped him to the ground unconscious. “That’s for kidnapping Val.”
“Let’s go.” I grabbed Edgar’s arm and pulled him away as the three of us ran along the cobblestones toward the exit. Energy from the exact spot where we had entered hit me full blast and I skidded to a stop and activated my Doorknob rushing to open a portal.