World in Chains- The Complete Series

by Ryan W. Mueller

  Soon they entered a larger chamber in the center of which stood an elevated platform. Small steps led up this platform, and on top of that platform, there was a pedestal containing a round blue stone. The key they needed.

  "I knew it!" Markus said. "Guess it's that old intuition at work."

  Rik bounded forward. "I'll go get it."

  "Be careful!" Nadia said. "There could be something up there."

  But Rik continued forward. As he reached the stone and grabbed it, a silvery, wispy orb appeared behind him. He turned to them, holding the stone up in triumph, unaware of the threat.

  "Rik, behind you!" Kara shouted. A moment later, she rushed after him. Nadia reached out to restrain her, but Kara moved too quickly, racing up the steps toward Rik and the silver orb.

  That orb developed some kind of appendage, which slowly reached out toward Rik, who had turned just then to see it. Kara rushed to Rik's side and pushed him away from the wispy tentacle, but she couldn't get away from it herself.

  The silvery substance made contact with her skin, then vanished.

  And Kara vanished with it.

  Chapter 30: The Search for the Scroll

  Nadia ran to the spot where Kara had disappeared, knelt beside Rik, and ran her hands along the ground, praying that Kara would somehow return. The others shouted from behind, but she didn't hear a word they said.

  She felt sick with panic. "Where did she go? She was right here."

  "I-I'm sorry," Rik said. "It's my fault."

  The others joined her near the pedestal. When she felt a warm hand on her back, she turned to see Ander frowning with concern.

  "That being could come back," he said. "We need to get out of here."

  "I'm not leaving without Kara," she said, pulling away from him. Now was not the time for him to focus so resolutely on the task. What did it matter if they found the scroll now, without Kara?

  "I don't think she's coming back," Ander said. His tone was firm, but a hint of sympathy lurked beneath the surface.

  "How can you know that?" she demanded. "How can you say that?"

  Ander knelt down beside her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Whether she's coming back or not, is sitting around here going to accomplish anything? She knew the risks when she came here. You knew the risks too. You were willing to sacrifice anything to kill Warrick."

  She fought against tears. "I know that! But I can't lose anyone else now. I never should have let her come."

  "You know that wouldn't have stopped her," Ander said.

  Nadia couldn't meet his eyes. As much as she hated to admit it, Kara would follow her through anything as long as it made at least a little sense. Nadia didn't deserve friends like that. Being close to her killed people. She was some kind of curse.

  Maybe she shouldn't care about anyone. How else could she kill Warrick?

  "I know," she said, wiping away tears. Why did she have to cry so much?

  "I know it sounds horrible," Ander said. "But Kara's gone. We're dealing with things we simply can't understand. If that thing killed her, there's nothing we can do. And even if it didn't, if it took her somewhere else, we have no idea where. We have to hope she can manage her situation, whatever it is."

  Nadia continued looking at the ground. "I know that what you say seems logical, but it doesn't make me feel any better."

  "I wouldn't expect it to. But we've all lost people. There will be a time to mourn, but now is not that time. We have a task to accomplish."

  She got to her feet on wavering legs. "You're right."

  Kara was gone. That much was clear. If this entity was the Silver Wisp she'd read about, then there was likely no hope of finding Kara. Nadia took a few deep breaths, trying to keep her mind from going down dark paths.

  When she turned, she caught sight of Aric slumped against the stone pedestal, his eyes closed, his face pale in the magical torchlight. Feeling warm with guilt, she realized she was being selfish. Kara was also his cousin.

  "Aric, are you all right?" Nadia asked hesitantly.

  "I-I'll be fine. Just give me a little time."

  But he wouldn't be fine, just as she wouldn't. People could only endure so much loss before they cracked under the pressure. How long could they numb the pain by focusing on the scroll?

  "We really shouldn't hang around here," Ander said. "There's no telling when that thing might come back. Would Kara want us to fail because of her?"

  Aric got to his feet. "No, she wouldn't."

  "It's still my fault," Rik said quietly.

  Nadia met his watery eyes. "You couldn't have known."

  "We're all to blame," Ander said. "I could have tried using my staff, but I froze. We all did. Kara was the only one who reacted."

  Nadia could see the reason in Ander's statements, but that didn't make her feel better. She continued kneeling there, staring at the spot where Kara had vanished.

  The Silver Wisp. She'd thought it was a myth.

  She wiped tear tracks from her face. "Ander's right. Let's keep going."

  They made their way out of the chamber. No one spoke. No one looked at one another. After Crayden, they all deserved a chance to rest, a day free from loss.

  The chamber was empty of threats as they returned to the house from which they'd entered the underground tunnels. When they stepped out of the house, into the veiled afternoon sunlight, that evil chill returned to the air, refocusing Nadia's attention.

  Kara wouldn't want her to give up. Deep down, Nadia couldn't believe Kara was gone forever. It was the kind of intuition Nadia trusted.

  With the blue stone in hand, they retraced their steps, reaching the temple. The pyramid stood over them, tall and mysterious. The whole way there, Nadia had thought she'd seen motion out of the corners of her eyes, but it ceased when she turned her head.

  As they entered the pyramid, her legs felt weak. Soon they reached the large stone door with the circular indentation. Rik placed the stone in the slot, and it fit perfectly. The door rumbled open.

  On the other side was a vast chamber lit by the same magical torchlight. Years of dust and disuse had darkened the once magnificent chamber. Enormous stone statues lined the perimeter of the room, their large eyes unnerving.

  At the center of the chamber's back wall, an elevated platform jutted out from the stone walls. A large series of steps led up to this platform, and on it stood the only statue not in line with the others. It carried a giant stone sword and measured at least twenty feet tall, another eight or so wide.

  "I don't like that statue," Markus said.

  Nadia slowed her pace as they approached. "I don't like it either."

  "I know what you mean," Aric said. "Feels like it's watching us."

  They reached the bottom of the steps, but the statue made no movements. Was it some kind of protector for the temple? Maybe it was no longer active. It looked ancient enough to have been part of the city before its destruction.

  When they reached the platform, the statue remained motionless. Heart pounding, Nadia inched closer and placed a hand on its stone surface. Nothing happened.

  She turned to the others. "Whatever it is, I don't think it's active anymore."

  "Let's hope it stays that way," Ander said, walking past the statue. The rest of the group followed, approaching the set of doors in front of which the statue stood. The doors came open with a firm push, leading to another magically lit corridor.

  The group filed through the open door and into the dusty halls beyond, but Nadia remained behind, watching the statue uneasily.

  A sudden blast of cold hit her, and she tapped Ander on the shoulder. "I think there's another wraith coming."

  The wraith did appear, and Ander blasted it away. He looked weak afterward, but it could have been her imagination. They walked farther along the twisting corridor. Maybe a minute later, they spotted three sets of chainmail lying on the ground. Nadia bent low to examine them.

  Markus squatted beside her. "Has someone else been here?"
>
  "No, I think this is the Imperial Guard expedition I read about. The account mentioned some deaths, though it was a bit vague."

  "What do you think killed them?" Ander asked. He had a remarkable ability to keep fear out of his voice. If she hadn't known him better, she'd have thought he was fearless.

  "Your guess is as good as mine," Nadia said.

  The farther they walked, the more sets of chainmail they found. The account had described a party of ten, and by the time they reached the end of the corridor, they found eight. With the passage of time, everything else had degraded, though there were hints of fabric.

  A vast chamber opened before them, featuring many large stone pillars in a pit at the bottom of some stairs. Perhaps hundreds of statues lined the pit, organized in straight lines like soldiers, standing the same height as an ordinary person. All the statues held swords. Real swords. Even the statues looked as if they might come to life at any second.

  Another set of chain mail sat at the bottom of the stairs, among the statues. Not far from that was a small cylindrical object. Nadia pointed. "What do you think that is?"

  Markus peered down from the top of the stairs. "I can't tell, and I'm kinda scared to get closer. I don't like the way those things look." He grimaced. "And my arm started burning really bad as soon as we entered this room."

  "I know what you mean," Aric said. "About those things at least. They look like they could come to life at any moment."

  Ander strode forward. "Well, we have to go that way."

  "I'll go down first," Nadia said. "After all, this is my quest."

  "Be careful, Nadia," Ander said, putting a hand on her shoulder. This time, he couldn't keep the fear out of his voice.

  Slowly, she made her way down the stairs. The soldiers didn't move, but how long would that last? Two steps from the bottom, she looked again at the cylindrical object. A scroll? Could the first part of White Fire be sitting right here in front of her?

  Standing on the bottom step, she reached out toward it, but it was too far. Her intuition told her not to step off the stairs. Why had the scroll fallen here? It should have been taken deeper into the temple, where no one could ever find it.

  She reached out again, and her right foot slipped. As soon as it touched the floor, the sword-wielding soldiers came to life, shaking their heads in confusion.

  Heart pounding, Nadia scooped up the scroll, then raced back up the steps. From behind her came the grunting of the soldiers and hundreds of quick footsteps. She glanced back to see the soldiers moving with alarming speed.

  "We have to run!" she said, racing past the others. Even with Ander's staff, they couldn't take on that many enemies. They rounded the many twists and turns of the corridor, the hurried footsteps growing louder and more terrifying behind them.

  "What the hell are those things?" Rik asked breathlessly

  "No idea," Nadia said. "Some form of undead perhaps?"

  "It doesn't matter," Ander said in the rear of the group. Every few seconds, he sent blasts of fire at the approaching soldiers. Occasionally, their pursuers collided with one another, but they moved far too quickly, making up the ground in no time.

  The group reached the vast chamber with the giant statues, but the soldiers were only a few seconds behind, filling the wide corridors from side to side. Blast after blast of fire brightened their surroundings, but the glow dimmed with each spell.

  Nadia kept running. "Are you doing all right, Ander?"

  "It's getting more difficult. I'm not sure how long I can keep this up."

  They sprinted to the door where they'd needed the blue stone. Then, in what seemed a matter of seconds, they returned to the temple's entrance and raced out into the dark city.

  Nadia looked back. Their pursuers had now fanned out without the constraints of the temple's corridors. The army stood as wide as they had in their original chamber. How could they avoid so many with Ander growing weaker?

  Cold settled all around them, and Nadia's heart raced. This reminded her of running from the Imperial Guard in the forest, but this time no one would come to her rescue. She raced across the uneven terrain, picking her way through the tangled underbrush.

  "I can't do it anymore," Ander said from behind her. "Rik, take the staff!"

  Nadia expected to see the glow of fire, but it didn't come.

  "I-I can't make it work!" Rik said.

  "Concentrate," Ander said.

  "How the hell am I supposed to concentrate right now?"

  The hill at the edge of the city came into view, but so did an army of wraiths standing directly in their path. That evil cold intensified, and she could barely stay on her feet.

  They came to a stop, boxed in on all sides. To their left and right stood the city's closely packed buildings and alleys overgrown with vegetation. In front of them, the wraiths hovered soundlessly. And from behind came the undead army.

  Legs shaking, Nadia turned to Rik. "You need to get that staff working!"

  "I'm trying, but it feels different than the other one."

  "Well, try a bit faster," Markus said, glancing in every direction. The difficult path had given them a little extra time, but not enough.

  The wraiths closed in. Icy air stabbed Nadia. She fell to a squat, barely able to keep from collapsing. Her vision became fuzzy, and her lungs ached. She felt like she was about to pass out. The hill at the edge of the city, the location of the barrier, was so close.

  But they would never reach it.

  Chapter 31: Death Speaker

  Markus trembled as the undead army closed in on them. Even if Rik got the staff working, he couldn't handle both the soldiers and the wraiths.

  Markus's arm burned more than ever where the skeleton had grabbed it. In fact, the burning had intensified ever since they'd awakened the undead soldiers.

  The rest of the group had pale faces, their eyes wide with panic. Only Rik had taken action, flinging magic at the soldiers. Markus felt a strange buzzing in his mind, like hundreds of thoughts going through his head—all saying one thing.

  Kill.

  The thoughts of the undead soldiers. An insane idea struck him.

  "Stop!" he called out, and their pursuers came to a complete standstill about five feet away, their hands clenched around their swords.

  Rik stared with his mouth open. "What the hell just happened?"

  "Attack the wraiths!" Markus said, pointing at the black creatures hovering about twenty feet away. Rik turned and sent bursts of lightning at the wraiths. After a few of the creatures dissolved into nothing, the others flew out of the way.

  The party exchanged quick glances, then rushed through the opening the wraiths had left. Behind them, the hundreds of soldiers remained where they were, watching the party go with dead, chilling eyes.

  Return to your posts, Markus thought, directing the words toward the soldiers, who immediately turned and walked back toward the temple.

  The party maintained a quick pace, stopping to rest only once they'd passed the barrier. The burning in Markus's arm had faded with the retreat of the undead army.

  Ander was panting. "I think we all need an explanation."

  "I don't really know what happened," Markus said, before explaining the series of events and thoughts that had led him to dismissing the undead army.

  "I've never heard anything like that," Ander said. He turned to Nadia. "What about the scroll? Is it what we came for?

  Nadia unfurled the scroll and examined it. Relief flooded her features. "Yes, it's the first part of White Fire. We didn't lose Kara for nothing."

  Markus leaned against a tree, waiting for his legs to stop shaking. He looked back at the dark cloud hanging over the city and decided he'd never return again.

  Nadia wiped sweat from her brow. "What if Kara's lost somewhere in there?"

  "No, I think she's somewhere else," Markus said.

  "How do you know? What if we're leaving her there to suffer?"

  "The city is huge," Ander said.
"We can't find her without putting ourselves in danger. I know you don't want to hear it, but she's probably dead."

  Nadia glared at him. "She's not dead. I would know."

  Ander knelt next to Nadia, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Look. I know it hurts right now, but death is not the worst thing that can happen to someone."

  She continued glaring at him.

  "You believe in God," he said. "God takes care of us when we die. If we're good, we go to Heaven, where we live in eternal happiness. If Kara's dead, that's good for her."

  "But she's not dead," Nadia said. "I know it."

  Ander stood again. "Okay, but feeling bad about it won't change anything. I know how horrible it is. You don't deserve to lose everyone like that. Nobody does. But we have to move on. Kara wouldn't want you to give up."

  Aric's voice sounded hollow. "He's right."

  Markus felt awkward, like someone who'd intruded on a funeral. He looked to Rik for reassurance, but Rik avoided his gaze.

  "I've got an idea," Markus said. "It's crazy, but I'm thinking the undead soldiers might know something. I'll talk to them." It wasn't what he wanted to do, but he had to do it for Nadia.

  She looked up at him through teary eyes. "Thank you."

  "Rik, I think you'll have to come with me," Markus said. "You still have the best chance with the staff, at least until Ander recovers. You okay with coming?"

  Rik chewed on his lower lip. "I don't want to go back, but we've gotta try."

  They took a few moments to recover, then made the slow descent toward the city. Markus quested out with his thoughts, trying to find the undead army, and though he could hear something faintly, he couldn't connect with them.

  Rik kept glancing back and forth, looking for wraiths, but the city's familiar cold had vanished. Even as far as the entrance to the temple, Markus couldn't make out the soldiers' thoughts. Reluctantly, he nodded to Rik, and they reentered the temple. A place that had seemed terrifying before suddenly didn't bother him so much.

  The buzzing in his head grew stronger, but it wasn't until they reached the chamber where the soldiers were lined up that he could connect with them. For now, they were thinking restful thoughts, but they did remain alert for intruders.