She came close enough that she could whisper in Nadia’s ear. "You have done well. In order to become a full-fledged dark knight, you must pass four tests, showing bravery, cunning, strength, and will. Your actions here today, along with your previous ones, have already brought your far. I think there is only one test remaining. Show me your chess piece secretly.”
Nadia took the piece out of her pocket just enough to show Jezreel. "Yes, just a test of will. You have indeed shown strength, cunning, and bravery. You do your grandfather proud."
Nadia didn't take it as a compliment, nor did it please her that she was being a good dark knight.
She backed away from Jezreel, not wanting to hear anymore. Then she noticed Rich and some of the others standing in a circle. When she joined them, she could see that they were standing over St. George.
From the wounds covering his body, Nadia knew he didn't have long.
Rich knelt over him. "I'm trying to heal him, but I can only do so much."
St. George reached up and placed a hand on Rich’s arm. "All this time looking out for dragons when what I needed to fear was cats."
The old knight laughed and lapsed into a fit of coughing. “This world is strange. I think it is time to let this version of me expire. I've use this form for so many years that it’s growing thin. Better to let another knight pick up the torch so that he may continue the fight in my name.”
Rich let his healing energy flow, shaking his head over and over. “No! Everyone, help me! If we all work together, we can—"
"Save your strength, Heinrich," St. George said. "You will need it."
A smile came over the old knight’s face, a contented, peaceful expression. "There will always be dragons to fight, Heinrich. I am just going to fight them somewhere else for a while." The expression remaining, the knight took a long, shuddering breath and did not take another.
Rich and the others in the circle bowed their heads, and Nadia followed suit. It had not even been a day and already their numbers were down, losing one to death and one to an unknown fate. If this had been only one test of three, she didn't like their odds going forward.
She looked on as St. George's body dissolved as though it had been nothing more than dust itself.
“His loss is regrettable," Jezreel said, "but we must move along. The longer we’re in this jungle, the more we will encounter things like this.”
Everyone fell in line, and Nadia saw that no one else had been killed, though everyone seemed beat up. The effects of wielding the sword were starting to wear off, and some of her pain returned.
Nadia continued in silence, hoping there would be no more surprises lurking in the shadows that night.
CHAPTER 11: THE CARVED TUNNELS
Rich plodded along in a daze, hardly able to believe what had just happened. First his father, and now George. Three paladins, and three dark knights. Now they were evenly matched. Could this somehow be the fault of the dark knights? He wouldn't put it past them. They were smart enough to arrange things to look like accidents. He vowed to be extra vigilant around them, not to let himself be tricked.
They made their way through the jungle for two more days, taking brief breaks to sleep with one half of their number keeping guard for the other half who slept. He didn't see any more of the shadow cats, but he could hear their wailing in the dark. Rich didn't enjoy a moment’s rest even when sleeping.
Every moment he was awake, he scanned the jungle, hoping his father would stumble out. Rich didn't care what kind of excuse he gave, only that he was back.
He passed the time by talking to Aaron, mostly about video games, movies, and much more about a new topic of interest—Angela. All Aaron’s time was spent trying to muster up his courage to talk to her again. He usually did, and eventually he came back with reports of all the wonderful things they’d talked about. It might have been funny if things weren’t so grim. At least it gave Aaron a way to distract himself.
Rich and Jan started their lessons again. Whenever they stopped to make camp or Aaron was talking to Angela, they got some practicing in. They took turns practicing each of the kinds of tests he’d experienced in the cave, creating complex objects, intricate systems, and magical servants. They focused much of the time on the last one, as it was by far the most complicated.
Rich also wanted to try creating one that didn't look like Nadia, as she would probably see them and freak out.
Sometime on the fourth day, the jungle started to thin and then gave away completely. They passed through a gate that looked like something out of an Egyptian temple. The walls had been created out of sandstone lit by torches every so often. The walls were carved with hieroglyphics, but it didn't look like the Egyptian ones Rich had seen in textbooks and museums.
Jan studied the symbols and recorded many of them in a notebook, looking like he’d stumbled on a whole room full of buried treasure.
"What are they?” Rich asked.
Jan’s eyes lit up, his grin a bit wide and goofy. "This is an ancient writing system used by the first knights," he said. "I can hardly believe there are so many examples here. There are so few specimens left in the world out there.”
Bruno turned to them and grunted. "Is that what you spend all day doing? We’re only in section number two and we’ve got to keep our eyes out for the next thing this place throws at us, don't we? You playing archeologist is going to get us all killed."
Rich could see Jan’s jaw tighten, but the man didn't say anything in response.
They kept walking, but Rich noticed that Jan didn't keep his eyes off the walls for long. Rich moved in closer so that only Jan could hear him. They had much better acoustics in these hallways than they had in the jungle. "So, can you understand any of them?" Rich asked.
Jan nodded slightly. "Yes, some of them. When I'm not training you, I have quite a bit of time to study. It takes more concentration than just walking by and glancing for me to understand, but I'm certain I could, given the time."
“Well, let me know when you do. I want to hear about it."
Jan placed a meaty hand on Rich’s shoulder. "You're a very likable fellow, Rich. I'm glad to have you along on this expedition."
Rich smiled back and shrugged with one shoulder. “Uh, thanks. You’re not so bad yourself.”
As they walked, Rich shot a few glances over at Nadia. She was looking even worse. Her hand was shaking more, and her skin had turned gray. Either she was getting sick, or the dark knights had done something to her that she was still trying to get over. Either way, he didn't like this one bit, especially when there was so little he could do.
With both his father and St. George gone, Rich insisted that his mother stay close to him and Jan. She didn't say much most of the time. Rich made sure to put a comforting hand on her shoulder once in a while just to reassure her that he was there.
After a few more hours, the tunnel got narrower so they could barely walk side by side, except for Jan and Bruno, who walked single file. They turned the next corner and met a dead end. After staring at the wall for a moment, Rich realized how incredibly silent this place was compared to the jungle. He found he missed the previous leg of their journey even if some of the noises were a little bit unnerving.
Jan cleared his throat and spoke in a gentlemanly tone. "Forgive me for saying so, but if I didn't know better, I'd say your guidance system is broken.”
Jezreel looked around, feeling on the walls and both sides, probably to see if there was something she was missing. "It's not broken," she snapped, “but it’s giving me a reading I don't understand. It says that the next direction we need to take is a downward slope."
She dropped her knees, obviously trying to make sense of the ne
w instructions. The others followed suit, including Rich, who was convinced there might be some sort of switch or loose brick they’d have to push to open the way forward.
Rich noticed Jan studying the glyphs on the walls, his expression changing as he read. "Any luck?" Rich asked.
"Maybe. I'm a bit rustier than I thought," he said. "I can't tell if this is a story about a pair of knights, a sea creature, or teenage girls fighting over the same guy. This story has elements of them all. Could be some fancy metaphor, but I'm not sure. It's like they got mixed up or something.”
Rich left him to keep figuring out the story, hoping that it would have something to do with their predicament.
He looked at the symbols too, wondering if he’d be able to spot a pattern or something. It didn’t seem to be doing much good, as the people were already combing every inch of the floor. To his surprise, he did recognize something on the wall. It looked very much like a knight chess piece with its horsehead shape.
It had a border around it that set it off from the surrounding glyphs. Rich walked over to it and tried to press his hand down on the spot, but nothing moved. "Hey," Rich called. “Does anybody have a knight piece?"
He looked around and realized that no one was just a knight.
Aaron had only been a pawn when he died, his mother was a bishop, as was Jezreel, and he figured the dark knights were either rooks or bishops as well. But then Jezreel produced a black knight piece. "I kept mine as a memento," she said. “In my day, we had to work for a long time in order to earn a bishop or rook. What do you want with it?"
Rich motioned for her to join him at the wall, pointing to the place. "I want to see if this reacts. Put the piece close to it."
She walked toward him with the piece extended. The closer she got, the darker the panel grew, becoming black like the piece. When she touched the piece to the panel, it released a high-pitched tone and a section of the floor slid away, revealing a staircase.
Jan chuckled and looked at Bruno. "Well, it appears that looking at the walls was useful after all. Honestly, who would have thought?"
Bruno sniffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, if you're so good at reading, why don’t you tell me what's down there? This looks like a trap to me."
Jan made his way to the beginning of the stairs and looked down. "Well, even if it is, it will be much better than sticking around here, crowded together in the hallway. I'm sorry to be indelicate, but we just spent three days in the jungle, and no one’s had a bath. At least there, we had flowers to mask the smell." He chuckled and started down the stairs.
With an exasperated grunt, Bruno followed the stairs until he caught up with his traveling companion. Rich and the others joined in, keeping close together. Rich couldn't help but sniff the air a few times they went down. Jan hadn’t been joking. He had smelled better things in the locker room on the hottest day of the year.
The stairs didn't last very long, and when they came out, the room wasn't much larger than the one they had left. It was lit with torches, and the floor was a pattern of light and dark squares very much resembling a chessboard. Bruno was about to step on the floor, but Jan held him back. "You got a problem with me taking the lead, do you?" Bruno said with a sneer. "You've got exactly three seconds to lower your hand before I set it on fire."
Jan did lower his arm and pointed at the room. "It's a chessboard. Doesn't take a grandmaster to see that. Don't you think that means something, like a trap?”
Bruno rolled his eyes. "Only that the guy’s got a obvious idea of interior decorating. Oh, a chessboard! Like I've never seen that before.”
Jan stretched out a foot and put a little pressure on the nearest square. Cracks rippled across it as though it had been made of thin ice rather than stone.
Rich winced as he thought about the piece they’d used to get down here. “It wasn't a coincidence that we needed to use a knight to make the passage appear," he said. "There’s a pattern to it. Maybe we have to move like a knight across the room."
Everyone fell silent, studying the board. Rich knew that knights always start next to the rooks, just one space away from the corner of the board. He stepped over to put his foot where one of the knights would start when his mother caught his arm and pulled him back. He closed his mouth so he didn’t snap at his mother. Why was she trying to hold him back?
"Sorry, Rich,” she said, "but let someone else try first. I've already lost your father.”
Rich’s feelings of annoyance quickly vanished, replaced with empathy. His mother's face looked as though she hadn't gotten enough sleep in a long time. She probably hadn’t.
Mallory gave an exaggerated sigh. "All right, if nobody else wants to try—sometimes a girl’s got to take things into her own hands."
She stepped onto the beginning space for a knight and then moved two spaces forward and one to the right in an L-shaped pattern, just as a knight on a chessboard would have jumped.
"See? No harm done," she said, with a shrug. She took another turn, this one two to the side and one forward. As she moved, however, Rich could see the stones she was using starting to crack. The longer she stood on the spot, the more the cracks spread out. "Mallory, don't stay in one place too long," Rich called out. "Look at the floor!"
Mallory looked down and made the next few moves in rapid succession, reaching the other side of the room. She gave a dramatic bow and beckoned the others to follow.
"What happens if we stand on the wrong spot?" Bruno asked.
Jan stepped to the side, gesturing with both arms. "You are welcome to try. It’s your neck. But I imagine you’ll only do so once."
Bruno stepped out with one foot on a starting square that was not for a knight. Instead of crumbling gradually, the square dropped away immediately, pitching him forward into darkness. Jan shot out his hand and grabbed Bruno's arm just in time to pull him back from the brink.
Jan finally lost his cool. "Have you seen enough, man? Mallory already showed you how to cross safely, so that’s what we’re going to do."
Bruno backed away, saying nothing. In the space where the floor tile had been, they saw a swirling mist, thick and dark as storm clouds. "What do you suppose is down there?" he asked, his voice wavering.
"If you like, I can push you back in and you could find out," Jan said. “You seem to make a habit of taking unnecessary risks."
The rest of them headed across one at a time, beginning on one of the two starting knights’ squares until only Bruno and Maria remained. Completely ignoring “ladies first," Bruno jumped on the first square and had to jump onto the next one immediately as the first crumbled, having had too many people pass that way.
Rich stared back from the other side, wondering how he could have been so careless as to let his mother be the last one across. "Do you want me to come back?" he asked.
His mother put her hands on her hips. "Rich, I've been a knight since long before you were born. I can handle this."
It was hard to argue with that, though it didn’t make him feel any better. He knew he wasn’t going to convince her to let him help, but it felt terrible that he couldn’t do anything else.
She stepped onto the first square and then made her first L-shaped move. However, after making the second, she looked around and her eyes narrowed. So many people had passed that there weren't any more good moves for her to make. All of the L-shaped moves from her current square tiles had crumbled, so the only way was backward. That way back was also looking very fragile.
"I don't suppose bishops can fly, can they, Mom?" Rich called out.
Maria shook her head, looking nearly as nervous as Rich thought she should. She used her finger to make imaginary moves in the air and nodded, pointing to a square
that didn't look very cracked. “That tile’s reachable in two moves, so it should be okay. I think I’m gonna make the jump."
Rich waved his arms. "Mom, it's a long way. Are you sure you’ve got this?"
She nodded, but didn't say anything, pressing her hands together. She kept her eyes fixed on her target.
“I'm going to use my bishop power to try to put one of the platforms between back together again for just a moment so I can launch myself off it. Don't worry if it looks like I'm jumping onto nothing."
Glad his mother told him that, Rich still felt nervous. "Can't I throw you a rope or a ladder or something?"
She shook her head. "This is fine, Rich. Thanks for the offer, though."
Rich pulled out one of his conjuring spheres and created a rope just in case. To his dismay, it only held its form for a few seconds. This was probably another one of those rooms in the maze where his conjuring powers didn’t work so well.
He kept his gaze fixed on his mother, holding his breath until she jumped. She crouched low and leaped from the platform, pointing at a place in empty space as she did. One of the old platforms came together so she landed on semi-solid ground, but it didn't last long. She jumped off the makeshift ledge, but didn’t appear to get good traction on it. Though she was aimed at the next, Rich saw that she was going to come up short. It was as though his heart stopped beating and his lungs stopped filling. This stupid maze was about to claim his mother, too.
She flung out her arms and caught the side of the tile, leaving her body dangling over the darkness.
Rich tried to conjure the rope again, but it wouldn't come. He looked around for anything else he might use, but he couldn't find anything. He didn't want to leap out onto the platform as it would probably crumble, sending them both into the pit.
A crazy idea popped into his head as he thought about his powers. He turned to his nemesis and actually asked her for help. "Mallory, I need you to attack someone, anyone. Just put them in danger for a few seconds. I'm going to use my casting move, and I need them to be in danger."
Bishop_Betrayal Page 10