A noise from the dark spiked her senses. Adrenaline began pumping through her veins. Someone’s coming. She strained her ears, trying to pinpoint the direction of the sound. It sounds like several people. The ground rumbled against her face. Or one very large person.
The muffled steps grew louder, the sound pin-balling around the damp room. Tiana braced herself. A strange, potent smell carried toward her. At that moment the horrifying realization hit her and her heart pounded in her chest. It wasn’t a someone approaching—it was a something. From the other side of the room two red eyes appeared.
They burned with ravenous hunger.
67
Death and Life
THE ROOM WAS AN ENORMOUS FACTORY.
Like the skyline of a haunted city, large devices jutted up toward the ceiling producing a humming noise. Weaving between the unknown structures was a matrix of conveyer belts. Soaring a hundred feet above the workshop large containers sailed along wires that stretched across the room in countless directions like an immense spider web. Bustling around the floor were scores and scores of Dark-Wielders and golden golems. The Wielders danced their arms in the air and chanted, like maestros conducting the droning machines.
Cody dashed down a long set of steep stairs and hid behind one of the conveyor belts. What is this horrible place? Cody began to raise his head but quickly ducked back into place as two Wielders marched past. In their hands were large, clear vials full of a dark liquid that looked like blood. Cody gagged.
The moment the Wielders were out of sight Cody crouched and dashed across the room. Despite the loud drone of the machine-like devices, every one of his footsteps seemed to erupt, broadcasting his presence. His head twisted back and forth cautiously.
Turning a corner Cody nearly crashed into the backside of two golems. Skidding to a halt, he dove to the side and rolled behind a conveyor belt. The golems turned and scanned the area before resuming their march.
Cody exhaled. I need to get out of here. He braced himself to make another dash. 3…2… A hand fell on his shoulder. Cody flinched, yanking on the hand to free himself. Without any resistance the hand was pulled toward him. Cody looked down to his lap—in it was a detached arm.
“Ahh!” Cody flung the arm away and shook his body in utter disgust. He pushed himself away. Moving slowly along the conveyor belt were dozens of unattached arms. What kind of revolting place IS this?!
Cody covered his mouth and inched forward. There was something odd about the arms. They were hollow of any bone or muscle and the pale gray skin had a strange plastic-like appearance similar to that of a manikin.
Suddenly, Cody grabbed his ears as a harsh ringing sound pierced through the room. At the sound all the giant devices stopped droning and the area went silent. That can’t be good. Cody dropped to the floor and rolled against the conveyor belt, his face stopping directly in sight of the thrown arm. He bit his lip to keep from retching.
Peering up he watched as dozens of Wielders and golems dashed by his location heading away from him. Cody locked every muscle in his body. They’re all leaving…why? As the soldiers continued to stream by, none bothered to glance back and see Cody lying in open sight. All at once the parade stopped. This is my chance!
Cody stood and ran deeper into the factory. He passed by another conveyor belt covered with legs and a barrel full of bare feet, both with the same unnatural appearance. He stopped as he arrived in the center of the plant.
Around the perimeter of the room were five gurneys. In the middle of the circle was a chair. Cody approached one of the cots but jumped back, startled. Occupying the bed was a wraithlike man. Similar beings filled each of the other beds, covered up to their necks in white sheets. Their eyes were hauntingly empty: The Rephaim.
Cody knew it was true. The dreaded, hollow men Tat had first discovered in the center of the enemy war camps outside Flore Gub. The demons Levenworth claimed were impervious to pain and fear.
In that moment Dace’s bewilderment aboard The Igg came rushing back and everything was clear: El Dorado’s suddenly innumerable fighting force made perfect sense: El Dorado was not enlisting more soldiers…it was creating more soldiers. Thousands of them.
There was a rumbling noise and the large devices began to click before settling back into their drone. Uh-oh. Then a rattling commotion sounded from behind him. Cody froze. Someone was coming. He searched around desperate for a place to hide. The approaching steps were getting louder.
Lifting the sheet from the bed, he crawled chest-down onto the cot and pulled the covers over him. The next moment two Dark-Wielders appeared in the center of the circle dragging a third man with them.
Cody looked down and his heart jumped. He was lying directly on top of the hollow man. The haunting wraith’s empty eyes gazed lifelessly at him. Cody clamped his jaw to keep from screaming.
He lifted the sheet a sliver and peered out at the scene. The Dark-Wielders pushed their hostage onto the chair in the center of the circle—it was Brodon, the merchant.
He did exist! Cody squinted his eyes; the merchant was bruised and swollen almost beyond recognition. His mouth was quivering but produced no sound. The two Wielders continued moving around the chair busily, oblivious to the merchant’s unspoken words.
The merchant’s head tilted and rolled to the side. His eye caught Cody’s. His eyebrows lifted and he increased his quiet muttering. Cody’s sightline was broken as the Wielders stepped between them. They placed their arms on the merchant’s chest and began chanting. Their voices were low and too muffled to comprehend.
Suddenly the merchant started thrashing violently. His back arched off the chair as though a powerful electric current bolted through him. His hands reached out and pressed against the Wielders’ faces trying to shove them away, but they continued chanting indifferently. Then, just as it had started—it stopped.
The room reverted to its eerie silence. Then, with a soft wheezing sound, the merchant shriveled like paper in a fireplace. Cody retched. The innards of the depleted skeletal body had been cleanly vacuumed out. His jaw fell open and from his gaping mouth a tiny, glowing light floated out.
The glowing orb elevated toward the ceiling and stopped several feet above the dead man. With a spark there were suddenly five smaller lights in place of the one. The lights began floating across the room and headed directly toward the five beds.
Cody watched helplessly as one of the lights drifted directly toward him. He pressed his body tighter against the lifeless wraith on the bed. The light hovered over the body before dropping and disappearing into the warrior’s mouth beneath him.
There was an almost inaudible moan around the room. Cody watched as the other four beds around the room begin to stir. Then, one-by-one, the hollow warriors rose from their resting place. Cody’s skin went cold. The body beneath him began to twitch as the warrior’s two hands shot out and grabbed him around the neck. Cody squealed.
The moment he did the room was silenced and every eye was pinned directly on him.
68
One Final Task
THE DOOR CLOSED SOFTLY BEHIND HIM. Flickering light from three thousand white candles illuminated the room.
The chamber was as ornately elegant as it was neurotically neat. From the entirely straight angles of the furniture to the perfectly-positioned paintings spaced along the wall, the chamber appeared as though it had never before been tarnished by the irritating clumsiness of human life.
Indeed, he would have believed it true if not for the man standing across the room gazing out the window. The man’s hands were clasped behind his back and his snow white hair hung straight, evidently handled with as much careful precision as the room’s décor.
“You wished to see me, father?” Prince Hansi asked from the entranceway. The Golden King continued to stare intently out over the city as though it held the answer to an unsolvable mystery.
“Sit,” he commanded.
Hansi entered into the room and sat in the chamber’s only
chair. “Have the…imperfections been removed?”
Hansi nodded. “Yes, father. I have seen to it personally.”
“And, the girl?”
Hansi’s face tightened. “I have done all you’ve asked of me.”
The King turned and glided toward the Prince.
“You have done well, son. You make your father proud,” he whispered, stroking Hansi’s hair. “I believe the time has come to…move forward.” The words slithered from the King’s mouth like a serpent.
Hansi’s back straightened. “Already? Are you sure? Perhaps if you gave me more time it would…”
The Golden King lunged forward, his face pressing close to the Prince’s. “Do you question my judgment? You don’t have feelings for the girl, do you? Have you lost sight of your assignment? Have you forgotten why we brought her to El Dorado in the first place?”
Hansi shook his head firmly. “Of course not, father. Your wisdom is impeccable. Your judgment is sound. Tomorrow I will speak to her and….”
“No,” the King interrupted. “Bring her to me tonight.”
Jade stared at the mirror suspiciously. For the first time in weeks there was a stranger staring back at her. She wiped her hand across her face, smudging her powdered cheeks.
What am I doing?
She looked ridiculous in the mirror with only one half of her face covered in the thick coating of makeup. And the realization hit her—she was caught awkwardly between an old and a new life.
Jade perked up at the sound of a tap on her door. Who on earth could that be at this late hour? Cody? She frantically used her fingers to comb her frizzled hair.
Giving another look in the mirror, she wiped the remaining makeup from her face. She double-checked the mirror—she looked beautiful.
She dashed to the door. Reaching it she took a deep breath to regain her composure. She opened the door. The man standing in the door was not Cody.
“Hansi? What are you doing here?” she stammered. His handsome face and dashing smile made her quickly regret having so rashly removed her makeup.
“You have been summoned to the chamber of the Golden King.”
“At this time of night?”
“The King has something…special planned for you.”
69
Packaged
CODY’S HEAD BURNED as he fought for breath. The hollow wraith’s fingers clamped tighter around his neck, pressing against his windpipe. Cody’s vision began to blur. He could faintly make out the shapes of the two Wielders and four hollow men closing in on him.
He grasped the attacker’s wrists, trying to pry them away from his throat but the grip was too tight. His vision was lost and his body went limp.
Boom! Cody’s ears rang at the sound of a bang. The pressure on his neck instantly loosened. Cody rolled to the side, falling off the bed and crashing to the floor. The hollow man on the bed was scorched black from head to toe. Gasping for breath, Cody scanned the room. The other hollow men and the two Wielders were scattered across the floor, steam rising from their lifeless bodies. What in the world just happened!?
He didn’t have time to find out. He scrambled to his feet and dashed away from the area. Whatever boom had slain the men had not gone unnoticed by the rest of the factory. Disorder rose up from all parts of the domed room.
Cody looked across the vast factory and calculated the sea of enemies separating him from the corridor exit. It’s too far.
Heavy footsteps and voices behind set him running again. He darted around the corner and leapt over a conveyor belt. His feet skidded to a stop as several golems clustered in his path. He threw himself behind cover just as they approached. Crawling on all fours Cody scurried quickly along the floor. Glancing over his shoulder he saw the shadows of four more golems.
He sprinted down the side of the belt and pulled himself around the corner, pressing his back against the ledge and covering his mouth to suppress the sound of his heavy breathing.
The corridor exit was still far away. He couldn’t keep up the game of cat-and-mouse much longer. Thud.
Something brushed past him, knocking hard against the side of his head. It was a large steel container. Cody watched the container’s path as it rose into the air and soared over the room on the complex pulley system.
Cody felt the bump of another container as it glided by. The agitated voices of the four golems were getting louder. Before he realized what he was doing, he impulsively grabbed the next container and hurtled himself over the edge.
His landing was softened by something cold and squishy. Cody sunk into spongy matter up to his neck. He grasped the side of the bin to keep from sinking in over his head. He vomited when he saw that the bin was completely full of unattached ears.
He thrashed in disgust, trying to pull his body out. They’re fake! They’re just artificial, created parts…. His desperate reassurance did nothing to ease his stomach. He finally managed to pull himself up and onto the bin’s ledge.
The floor was tiny below as he soared a hundred feet above it. He instantly felt queasy again. He traced the path of his bin right past the exit. He braced himself to jump. Wait for it…wait for it…wait…for it….
At last the bin came parallel with the corridor’s ledge. Cody leapt from the bin, stretching his arms outward. He stumbled as his left foot caught the edge of the container. Suspended in the air, his face peered down at the ground.
He groaned as his body swung and crashed against the wall. His fingers burned as they held his weight and kept him from plummeting to a mushy death a hundred feet below.
He risked a glance down even though his arms shook violently from the tension. A cluster of Dark-Wielders had gathered below and all eyes were on Cody. They raised their arms and he saw their mouths begin to move.
With a pained scream Cody pulled himself onto the ledge by his fingertips and out of the sunken warehouse. The lengthy corridor stretched out before him. Cody rolled to his feet and sprinted as fast as he could. The door at the far end grew larger and larger. Almost there! He didn’t dare look back to see if he was still being followed. He needed to escape the nightmarish laboratory—and fast.
The door was now only a dozen feet away. I made it! He reached out to grab it. From the corner of his eye he saw motion but was too slow to react. A fist collided against the side of his head sending him staggering to the floor, winded and dazed.
A hooded man stepped over him, grasping him by the collar and dragging him into a side room. Cody flailed his arms, swatting at the man, but his sense of balance had been knocked out of sync by the unanticipated blow.
Cody felt himself being lifted into the air and dropped back onto a hard surface. He was now in one of the silver crates. “Noooo!” His cry was suffocated as the lid of the crate slammed shut, trapping him in darkness. Cody pounded his body against the sides of the encasing, but the tight compartment confined his arms, pinning them against his side. He couldn’t move an inch in any direction. He coughed as the air began to grow thin. “Help!” he tried to scream, but no sound came.
He heard muffled voices from outside the box. “Where’s this crate headed?” asked a steady voice. “Should I bring it to initiation?”
“No,” replied a second voice. “Not this one…send this to the furnace.”
70
Stranger in the Night
THE HEAT OF THE HUNTER’S BREATH burned like fire against her face. Its two flaming eyes remained still, penetrating her and savoring the pitifulness of its helpless prey.
Tiana thrashed desperately at her bindings but the work only managed to press her face harder to the cold ground. She heard the sharp sound of the Beast’s talons as they cut across the ground, slowly approaching.
Her screams were silenced by the golden platelet over her mouth. It was no use. She could do nothing but wait. The approaching steps grew louder as the Beast drew closer. She felt breathing against the back of her neck and braced herself for the piercing sting of the Hunter’s fangs.
With a rumble the ceiling of the cave began to collapse. Tiana took off running the opposite direction of the wailing Beast. Completely blinded in the dark, she staggered dizzily as her head screamed for air.
She could hear footsteps beside her but couldn’t see a face or body. She stumbled into a wall but felt two hands grasp her shoulder and gently shift her direction. Tiana continued to run through the gloom.
As she ran, the stranger continued to guide her path. It was as though the invisible guide was running in beautiful summer daylight.
She didn’t know how long she ran or if the Hunter was behind her. She put her faith in the invisible stranger and ran until her legs began to wobble. All at once the utter darkness was replaced by the expansive landscape.
Tiana staggered out from the cave. Down below in the valley sat El Dorado in a tranquil slumber. Tiana heaved over, clutching her head and trying to maintain her vision.
She turned back to the opening of the cave. Inches from her face, a man stared directly at her like a ghost. He had no eyelids.
Tiana shuffled back in fright. The man stepped toward her and reached his hand for her face. Tiana closed her eyes and flinched. The next thing she knew a wave of soothing air flooded her lungs.
She grabbed her mouth—the gold platelet was gone. She looked back at the stranger who motioned for her to follow. Without waiting for a response, he disappeared over the dune. Tiana glanced around, and then ran after him.
Cody felt himself bobbing through the air. He kicked at the walls of his prison and his head whiplashed and smashed against the floor, all to no avail. Did they set me down?
City of Gold Page 19