“You think this is bad? You should have gone through it without a light,” Cassiana whispered.
“How did you find your way out?” I asked.
“Al — um — I was told to follow the blue path. It is only visible to those who have the ability to use majvolta.”
“Ah.” I looked down the tunnel. My night vision could see well past Cassiana’s light, but the tunnel continued beyond my sight’s limits. “Any idea where we are?” I asked.
“I know the house and I know that I’ll be able to tell you where we are if I recognize something.”
“So, it’s up to Spectral G.P.S.,” Ace muttered.
Scrae coalesced on Mykio’s shoulder. He shot a glare at Ace. THERE IS NO NEED TO SOUND SO DISGUSTED.
“Not disgusted,” Ace said, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Just thought we would be able to find our way without help.”
LIKE THAT WILL EVER HAPPEN, Scrae muttered.
SCRAE, BE CIVIL, Kylesst said. RYLYNN, I SENSE WRONGNESS DOWN THE WAY WHERE THE TUNNEL ABOVE OPENS IN THE WATERFALL, he continued to me.
“Let’s go,” I said, heading in that direction. The others fell in step behind me. Perhaps a hundred steps from the hole to the above world we saw another point of light.
“That was fast,” Mykio said.
“That’s not the way out,” Cassiana hissed. “It’s a trap. I lost a friend to one like it.”
“Well, now that we know it is a trap we can be careful. I want to check it out,” Ace replied.
“Why?” Cassiana asked.
Ace shrugged. “It’s ahead of us? And I’m curious?”
“’Curiosity killed the cat,’” Cassiana said warningly.
“But satisfaction brought him back.” Against what was probably wise, we approached the light. But we were wary and we had weapons where Cassi and her friends hadn’t. The corridor opened up into a long room that was twice as wide as the hall. A light orb glistened in an alcove. At first glance, there was nothing in the room. Other than its light and width, its only difference from the hall was its flagstone flooring. In a checker-board pattern, some squares were smooth. Others had circular grooved cut in them. But a second glance revealed that not everything was as it seemed.
I carefully approached one of the decorated tiles and saw that in its grove was a cleverly hidden rope. The rest of the trap hid in the cracks between stones. “There are snares all over this floor. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cassiana shiver.
A deranged giggle had us spinning to the door we had just entered. A man in shredded rags leered at us. His eyes were a strange white color. More giggles alerted us to the fact that we were surrounded by more of these strange people.
“Well, damn, this is one giggle party I wish I hadn’t dropped into,” Ace grumbled drawing a long knife. Its ordinary edge caught the light from the room’s and Cassi’s orbs.
“That was horrible,” I said, drawing my own knife.
“It was fast, though.” Ace protested.
“I’ll give you that,” I grudgingly admitted.
“I think the dancing is about to start,” Marius observed, a moment before the strange people lunged toward us. It seemed like a very unfair contest with us armed and them without a weapon other than their bare hands. But they wanted to hurt us and didn’t seem to be aware of the danger they were in. They were used to people being as unarmed as they and terrified. Besides Cassiana, I think we were mostly disturbed by them.
“Leave us alone,” I demanded as the small hoard was baring down on us. The only response I got were giggles and leers. Avoiding the snares, our little grouped stood back-to-back with Cassiana in the middle. In their excitement to get to us, a few of our attackers triggered their own traps. A swoosh of rope and a yelp later, five of them were dangling from the ceiling. By turns, the danglers hissed and giggled. They hissed when they struggled to free themselves. The giggles came when they gave up. “At least they’re easily amused.” I muttered, turning my attention to the ones still upright and coming at us.
“I never realized how creepy that could be,” Jason muttered.
I heard yelps from the door as Marius slashed any of the strange people who got too close. The ones in front of me reached toward me, their pale eyes gleaming with hunger. I sliced the air warningly with my knife. The woman in front of me ignored the warning and made to grab my arm. Not feeling particularly forgiving, I cut at her offending reach. She screamed as she received a shallow cut for her trouble. She stumbled back into those behind her and stared at the wound on her wrist. He wide eyes went from the welling blood to the knife in my hand.
“Back off,” I growled, and to my surprise, she did. As did the ones around her.
“I don’t think the bullies like it when their victims can fight back,” Marius remarked, as our attackers started to flee.
“I think we should leave before they regroup,” Cassiana suggested. Movement from the wall where some of the hoard had poured through drew my eye. A woman with rusty hair approached hesitantly. In the light from Cassiana’s hand, I could see that her eyes were different from the others. Instead of being white, they were a pale purple.
Cassiana caught sight of the woman and gasped. She stepped toward the purple-eyed woman with wide eyes. “Samkara?” she asked hesitantly. The pale purple eyes darkened slightly in recognition. But she didn’t say anything.
“Who is this?” Marius asked.
“She’s one of my friends, Samkara,” Cassiana replied, taking another step toward the strange woman. A look of horror crossed Cassiana’s features and she glanced at me. “All those people, they must have never found their way out and now they go after newcomers to the Maze.”
“But why are they so — strange?” Mykio asked.
“The Collector,” I replied, when Cassiana didn’t. “A creature with just a mouth and pale white eyes. Whatever it does to people when it catches them makes them forget who they are. They only know the Maze, then. It’s their home and they probably help the Collector catch other people,” I guessed. It made sense to me.
“But why isn’t Samkara like the others?” Cassiana asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Nor do I know how we can help her right now. We are too deep to send her to the ship. I guess she could come with us if she follows, but we need to destroy the Heart of Souls before we leave this place,” I replied.
At my words, Samkara’s eyes lost their paleness. “Heart. You seek?” she asked in a broken voice.
“Yes,” I replied, before Cassiana could say something.
“Follow,” Samkara said, as she gripped Cassiana’s arm. She then ran toward the other side of the room, avoiding the traps with ease. We managed just as well and raced after her down another tunnel. The corridors twisted and split in a jumble that made me wonder if I could find my way back without help. I doubted it, since everything looked the same. Suddenly, Samkara skidded to a halt. I slowed down and stared in surprise. The tunnel had opened up into a comfortably large, dome-shaped room. Three oddly bright and ornate chandeliers hung from the ceiling in a line cutting down the middle of the room from the door to the far wall. Two rows of stone benches arched halfway across the room. Near the wall on the far side of the room from the doorway was a stone table. Upon it was pulsing black crystal that reminded me of the prison of the Soul Shadows. It only lacked the oily rainbow sheen the prison crystal had.
“Thank you, Samkara,” I said. I started to approach the crystal thing to use my knife to shatter the foul thing. A clatter of boots had me whirling around before I could do that. Cassiana muffled her own cry of alarm. Samkara dragged Cassiana behind the stone benches. The rest of us backed toward the cover, not wanting to show our backs to Alec and his men. “Well met, Alec.” I greeted with a grin. “I must say, you look much more — alive this time. Before you looked kind of like a statue.” I just had to remind him. I’m pretty sure something crazy had taken control of my mouth, especially when I heard Cassiana and a few of Alec�
��s men gasp at my impudence. There are days when I’m just not that wise.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen someone look as pissed as Alec did in that moment. DUCK, Kylesst warned, a moment before Alec thrust out his right hand as if to halt someone. The hairs on the nape of my neck stood on end as I dropped to the ground. A loud crunch had me glancing over my shoulder. A foot-wide dent had appeared in the wall behind where I had been standing. Cracks spider-webbed from the shattered point of impact. I did not want to imagine what I would have looked like if I hadn’t ducked. My brows rose when I turned back to Alec. His lips quirked in a cruel smile. Good job, Rylynn, you have succeeded in ticking him off. Go you, I thought, as I sprang behind the stone bench to my right.
Part of the bench was smashed into the floor a second after I had scurried under cover. Gunshots thundered in the cavern. I covered my ears but they still rang. Cautiously, I glanced over the edge of the bench. Thankfully, Alec had been successfully distracted my Mykio. My breath caught in my throat as I watched the L’uf dive for cover as Alec and his men blasted the stone where he had been standing. I searched the ranks of enemies for any who had been injured. Since we couldn’t use today’s energy weapons against people who would obviously use such energy for nasty purposes against us, we had brought relics from a bygone age. I have no idea where Mykio had found Old Earth revolvers that actually worked, but he had. By the shine of them, I knew they were highly prized by the L’uf. He probably knew what they were called. Other than ‘handgun’ and ‘revolver,’ I didn’t have a clue.
Myko had given one to Marius, who nowused itto draw attention away from the L’uf. The bullets came to a halt in air that I could see now. Alec raised an eyebrow at Marius. Those dark eyes glittered with malicious amusement as he held his hand under the suspended projectiles. The solidified gas quickly reverted to its usual state at the touch of Alec’s hand. The bullets fell harmlessly onto his waiting palm. “Fools. You think these pathetic weapons will help you?” He laughed coldly. “You should have left when you had the chance.” The bullets sprang from his hand like they had been shot. Marius, who I had seen move like nobody’s business, couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. His dove behind the benches nearest me slow enough that I knew it wasn’t just in my head. A fog surrounded him for a second before letting him go.
He cried out, that second had given the bullets plenty of time to find their mark. “Marius,” I cried out, pulling him farther undercover. His three bullets had caught him along his right side. One had scored his thigh before burying itself in the stone wall. The other two had gotten luckier. I could see his body frantically trying to heal the wounds, but that didn’t stop him from coughing blood.
Over my panic, I could hear Alec ordering his men to kill us all, except for Cassiana. Energy sizzled in the air as they bombarded the benches we were hiding behind. The cracks appearing told me in no uncertain terms that we didn’t have long. “Zara! I’m killing her,” Marius gasped, his green eyes wide. I have never seen him so afraid.
Determination stamped out my panic. “Neither of you are dying today,” I told him. “None of us are.” The Kina around me were manipulating the energy around them to hurt us. To use our weapons against us. Well, I absorbed energy like a sponge. And where this was usually a horrible idea for my health, I didn’t care about me anymore. My people were in harm’s way because of me. Marius was bleeding out in front of me. I stood up.
“Rylynn,” Marius gasped, but I ignored him for the moment. I could see more Kina in the hall, ready to support the attackers already inside. Alec grinned maliciously at me and sent a blast of energy to crush me into a pulp. He must have forgotten that I was similar to him. I mentally snatched at all the energy throbbing around me and pulled it in. I staggered as Alec’s attack hit me, but it didn’t send me flying. I don’t think it could with the fire burning within. The attacks on the rest of my team came to me instead. That smile on Alec’s face dropped. I tried to smile at him, but I don’t think I managed with the pain and the fear that I had probably just fried myself.
I fell to my knees beside Marius. Marius, who even while choking to death on his own blood, had more sense than I did. With what was probably the last of his strength, he grabbed my hand and the energy that was killing me flooded into him. His body took advantage and expelled the foreign metal before healing the wounds it had caused. The tension left his body and I knew that he had stopped drawing so heavily on Zara. I hoped the Spectral was all right, but I didn’t have a ton of time to worry about her.
A thunderous crash sent everyone staggering. A soft jangle drew my stinging eyes to the ceiling. The chandeliers were dancing in the dusty air. Covering my nose and mouth with a torn shirt sleeve, I took stock of what had just happened. The doorway was blocked by a huge pile of rock. Alec and those with him had been joined by other Kina. I wondered how many had made it into the room before the roof came down. How are we going to get out of here? Another thought begged. Before I could panic that we had been entombed, I turned my attention to why we were there in the first place.
Throughout the entire fight, the crystal Heart hadn’t been touched by a single stray bullet or rock-denting push. How much luck did the evil thing have? But I would see it shattered by smashing it with the long knife that I drew, as I hopped toward the stone table.
Darkly amused laughter stopped me in my tracks. I slowly turned from the Heart to a leanly-built Kina who was dusting off his robes. Dust lightened the sable of his long hair but couldn’t hide the vibrant red and pale silver locks in his queue. His dark eyes laughed at me. I knew him. Had seen him in memories. Caintallon. “Betrayer.” I breathed the second aloud.
Chapter 31 – Cornered
“Your pathetic knife can’t destroy the Heart, little Defender. But please, do try. Once you discover that it’s useless, we will finish this …” Betrayer said, gesturing at the scene around him. The Kina had gotten their feet under them again, but they weren’t attacking us. My people were a bit scraped up and just as covered in dust, but alive. Both sides were trying to figure out who to watch; me and Betrayer, or each other. “… Paltry argument,” Betrayer finished, after a moment of searching for the right words.
Maybe he is right, I thought, sheathing my knife. Perhaps the crystal was too strong to be shattered by a steel blade. Maybe if I tossed it into the ground I would have better luck — I reached toward the Heart.
DON’T, Kylesst roared in my head. I flinched and raised my hands to cradle my head instead. DO NOT TOUCH IT. TO TOUCH IT WILL MAKE YOU INTO A SOUL SHADOW, Kylesst continued in a slightly softer voice.
I’m an idiot, I thought with disgust. I had read Caintallon’s journal. I knew how the damn thing worked by touch. How could I let him trick me into trying to grab it? I turned back to Betrayer. Amusement glittered in his dark eyes. “You almost had me there, Caintallon,” I said, crossing my arms to keep from doing something else stupid. In my mind, I profusely thanked both God and Kylesst for Kylesst’s timely intervention. I really did not fancy becoming a hungry, twisted abomination.
Betrayer’s eyes widened in surprise. “You forgot that one, didn’t you?” I continued, the corner of my lips twisting into a mocking smile. I really must have a crazy person in charge of my tongue because this was the second time in not that long that I was baiting someone it wasn’t wise to bait. Though how calling him by his birth name was baiting, I don’t really know. It just felt like that.
My opponent narrowed his eyes at me. He crossed his arms in an imitation of my posture, but he probably looked much more relaxed. He looked me over before saying, “I must admit, I was a touch too arrogant the last time we met.”
“Oh?” I asked, raising a brow at him. I tried hard not to gulp at the remembered pain of being stabbed in the back. At the memory of the fear that had nearly drowned me as I bled out with my Spectral frantically trying to help me.
Betrayer nodded. “I should have killed your rescuers, made sure you died by slitting your throat, and
tossed the lot of you into the pool,” he replied. Then he shrugged. “I made a mistake. But I promise you, I won’t make it again. Give up, Rylynn, and I’ll make sure you die quickly” he vowed. I knew he wanted to kill me. And he might even have made it quick, but it wouldn’t have been painless. There was too much malicious intent in his expression to expect anything else. “Thank you, but I prefer living,” I replied. I was very proud that my voice didn’t tremble. One of the most dangerous men in the universe was standing in front of me with murder on his mind. And if he had his way, he would find some way for me to kill myself. His journal was rife with scenarios like that. I glanced quickly at the people around us. My friends were determined to fight as long as they could, but I could tell that they were wondering what our next move was. It wasn’t fighting; we wouldn’t survive that, I knew. But neither were we giving up. The men around Betrayer and Alec wore smug expressions. I could almost see them reaching for popcorn and settling in to watch Betrayer wipe the floor with us. Not a very comforting thought. The only one who didn’t seem pleased with the situation was Alec. He was glaring at Cassiana, who glanced between him and me as if to see who would move first. A faint tingle had me glancing up again. An idea formed and I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it before.
I slid my right hand along the inside of my left arm. My fingers circled around a hilt of a chromatic throwing knife that I was really glad I had brought along despite the fact that it would have been stupid to use in a fight. Good thing I’m not using it for a fight, I thought, as I smiled at Betrayer. “You know, you’re right,” I said, and his eyes glinted briefly with triumph before narrowing in suspicion. Sometimes he was wise … “This does need to end now,” I said, drawing all the heat I could from the room. I saw people shivering as the temperature dropped and water vapor froze along the walls and crystalized into fine flakes in the air. The chromatic throwing knife in my hand was soon blazing with indigo light. A little warning light was blinking as it reached its maximum limit. I charged it just a tad more before throwing it as hard as I could.
Defender of the Empire: Chaos Page 25