by Tristan Vick
“Lisette?!” Leif chirps excitedly.
We race toward the sound of Lisette’s faint voice, past a workman’s table that reminds me of a watchmaker’s shop with its assortment of giant gears and sprockets and springs scattered about, past a row of bookshelves with old dusty books, and finally pas some strange inventions I’ve never seen before.
Following after Leif, we run into a nook in the back corner, partitioned away from the rest of the room, where we find Lisette strapped to a large wooden table. She’s wearing an emerald green dress that shimmers like the ocean at twilight. Above her head is suspended a giant pink gem, called a Dragon’s Eye, that hangs by a thin brass chain.
The strange elixir we passed by earlier is being fed into a series of aerators, which then drip feed the substance directly into Lisette’s limbs via a series of arm-length needles. Each needle pierces her body at numerous vital energy points. It seems her joints and her main arteries have all been targeted. Even her neck.
The cyan color of the elixir drips down each slender needle and into her body where, upon entering the bloodstream, its illumination surges through her veins and creates the illusion that her skin is fracturing with a thousand branching fissures of light.
“Help me,” she whispers in a barely audible voice. A voice stressed by the unending tinge of pain. Her head bobs side to side as though she’s suffering from delirium. “It burns.”
“By the Goddess!” Bethriel gaps. “What have they done to you, you poor thing?”
Leif races to Lisette’s side and begins to eagerly pluck out each of the needles one at a time. She mumbles something then passes out on the table from the fatigue of whatever mad experiments Dragoron has been conducting on her.
When he finishes taking out the last needle, Leif’s emotions get the better of him and he lets out a furious growl and upturns the entire rack of mysterious glowing liquid. The glass bottle and beakers shatter, and glass and glowing potion splash across the floor, painting the room in cerulean hues.
“No!” Bethriel shouts, throwing up her hand to warn against such a reckless act. But it’s too late. There is a thunderous crash as the elixir, glass jars, aerators, and everything else come tumbling down and shatter against the rocky floor. As the glass pops and explodes, shards shoot everywhere, leaving only a cumbersome mess.
“Help me unfasten these straps,” Leif says as he begins undoing Lisette’s restraints.
Ignoring the broken glass, I rush to the other side of the table and help free Lisette’s limbs.
Leif, reaching underneath her limp body, scoops her up into her arms as though she were a sleeping princess and heads back the way we came.
Together, we head swiftly back to the large wooden door, but just as we’re about to go back out into the hall we hear a loud clangor come from the corridor. My heart almost stops in my chest, and by the looks on Bethriel’s and Leif’s faces they are experiencing the same gut-wrenching terror.
“What the devil?!” a voice cries out.
“Someone has entered the secret chamber,” says another.
“Impossible,” the first voice says. “I sealed this corridor with a misperception spell. Even if they stumbled upon the secret entrance, upon entering it they’d only be turned around to find themselves back at the same entrance.”
“That’s Dragoron’s voice,” Bethriel gasps. She sounds alarmed and looks over her shoulder at me with a worried expression on her face. “We must shut this door. Before he finds us.”
Joining her, we pull the massive door shut and quickly secure it with the wooden bracer. Nothing will be knocking down this door anytime soon.
“What now?” Leif says, looking at us both.
I look to Bethriel and then Leif, who holds a sleeping Lisette in his arms and clutches her tightly to his chest, but they too are at a loss. Just as I am. It appears we are trapped in this underground vault with the jackals waiting outside the doors. Waiting to claim us for their own.
30
If Dragoron really did cast a magic spell to confuse curious spies, then that means the reason we’re stuck in this secret underground lair is me. Since magic doesn’t work on me, I can only assume that it was my presence that allowed us to find the secret chamber at all.
At the same time, it worked out for the best. We found Lisette and whatever happens next...we’ll face it together.
Suddenly there is a loud thud against the chamber door. Dragoron, says, “Put your shoulder into it, boy!”
“I’m doing my best,” Dragoron’s subordinate says. And then another loud thud follows.
“What’s she doing?” Leif asks me.
I follow his gaze to find Bethriel inching along the back wall, feeling the contours of rock lining the inner chamber. Slowly, she touches every nook and cranny, searching for anything out of the ordinary.
“I’m looking for a secret escape route. There must be one somewhere. After all, we’re dealing with a sorcerer and if my hunch is right…ah…here we go.”
Bethriel pushes on a stone which makes a clunking noise as it sets off a series of wooden gears. The gears sound muffled, as if they were built into the wall. Suddenly, a piece of the wall rolls away, revealing a back exit.
“Good work!” I put my hand on Bethriel’s shoulder and give her a gentle squeeze. She places her hand on mine and smiles. For just a split second we share a glance, and the way she is looking at me is the same way Alegra looks at me. With a piercing sort of gaze that has a way of cutting to my core. I quickly remove my hand from her should and turn away.
“Right,” Leif says, holding Lisette. He gestures at me with a polite nod and says, “Ladies first.”
“My hero!” I roll my eyes. I unhook a lantern from the wall and step into the dark tunnel. “Follow me.” We all crouch down and enter the narrow passageway.
It’s several minutes before we reach a junction. At the fork are two branching passageways. To the right is a spiral staircase which burrows deep, descending to the Goddess knows where, and the other turns upward, most likely ascending to the surface, as a faint light can be seen at the top of the stairwell.
“I vote for the one that takes us back to the surface,” Leif says. He’s beginning to sound winded, having carried Lisette for so long. But he isn’t about to show any signs of weakness. Not with his manhood, chivalry, and courage at stake. I’m sure that handing Lisette off to me or Bethriel would prove to be an immense embarrassment to Leif. Nevertheless, I have to give him credit where credit is due. He’s turned out to be a much better person than I initially took him for.
Bethriel gets extremely close to Leif’s ear and whispers, “Aren’t you the least bit curious where the downward passage goes?”
Leif doesn’t even hesitate to answer. “Considering we’re already a hundred meters underground…no. Not really.” He gives Bethriel his best smile and a wink. “But by all means, feel free.”
“Maybe I will,” she says defensively.
“All right, all right, you guys. How about we just…” I stop mid-sentence and draw out my sword—my eyes trained on the black mouth of the downward passage.
“What is it?” Bethriel asks me.
“I could have sworn I saw…” I lunge toward the stairwell extending a lethal jab. Suddenly there is a shimmer, and like a cascading waterfall made of red light, it all falls away to reveal Dragoron standing before us.
Dragoron, dressed in the black robes of a mage, holds my blade firmly between both palms. “Very good, girl!” he says in his booming voice. I note that the green vein on the side of his graying temples bulges out of frustration. Apart from the gray hair which wraps about the back of his head from one ear to the other, he is mostly bald. His dark brown eyes seem almost black in the dim light. “I wasn’t expecting anyone to see through my magic cloak so easily.”
“You’ll find I’m full of surprises.” I turn my head slightly, without taking my eyes off Dragoron, and tell my friends to run. “Go! Get out of here.”
&nbs
p; “What about you?” Leif says.
“Don’t worry about me. Just get Lisette and Bethriel to safety. I’m counting on you now.”
Leif lingers a moment longer, but Bethriel eventually ushers him up the passage that heads back to the surface.
Once they are a safe distance away, I pry my sword out of Dragoron’s grasp and take a step back.
“I’ve heard tales of knights who were impervious to magic, but I thought they were just tales.”
“Oh, I can assure you, we’re quite real.”
“Fascinating.” Dragoron brushes his hands and dusts himself off. His dark eyes that seem blacker than the unlit stairwell behind him. He smiles and asks, “So whom do I have the honor of meeting this day?”
“My name is Arianna De Amato,” I say.
“Ah, yes! Master Kel’s star pupil. I heard you single-handedly defeated the army of the dead.”
“News travels fast.”
“Indeed, it does.” He smiles at me again.
“What did you do to Lisette?”
“Just a harmless experiment.” He continues smiling at me with his manic grin which just won’t seem to fade away. It gets under my skin, to say the least. “By the look on your face it seems you don’t believe me.”
“Of course I don’t believe you. You were holding my friend captive and practicing your black arts on her.”
“Black arts? Hardly. I was running a scientific experiment.”
“A what?”
“Science…it’s, well,” he looks away for a moment. Then, after giving it some thought he looks back at me and smiles again. “Never mind. What matters is what you decide to do next. You can either surrender yourself to me, and convince your friends to do the same, or I will be forced to apprehend you all. This time I’m afraid I won’t be so lenient with you.”
“So let me get this straight. If we cooperate, you’ll be lenient with us, but if we…”
“Yes?” Dragoron asks, smiling at me with his unnerving grin.
“I…uh…” I thrust my leg forward and kick Dragoron squarely in the chest. The kick sends him flying backward into the stairwell. He slams into the wall. I hear him grunt as tumbles down the stairs.
I turn and race up the stairs until my legs are burning. I push myself till I can barely feel my legs and, finally, I see the entrance. I dash through, plant my boots to the ground, and skid to a stop. Turning back toward the exit, I see a metal gate. I slam it shut.
“There she is!” a familiar voice says.
“Help me secure this gate,” I shout.
Bethriel appears beside me. She hands me a lance that the gate guards use. I take it from her and jam it into the gate so that it locks the bars in place. Then, pulling on the metal lance, I bend it so it won’t come undone.
“Move!” I say, throwing my hand up. “He was right behind me.
When I turn back around I discover we’re in the same long corridor that we were in earlier. The one with the Juggernaut. We’ve gone in a circle.
“Put me down,” Lisette says.
Leif does as he’s asked and sets her back down.
“What’s that?” Bethriel asks, looking down at Lisette’s hands.
Lisette blushes and holds up the Dragon Eye crystal. “I took this when Leif picked me up. I thought maybe we could sell it or something.”
Throwing his arm around Lisette Leif says, “Did I ever tell you how much I love you?”
Lisette’s face drains of all color and she looks at Leif. “You…love…me?”
Leif rubs the back of his neck. “Well, what I meant was…”
Lisette hands the gem off to Bethriel. She grabs Leif by the back of his neck and pulls him in. Standing on her tip-toes, she cranes her neck and kisses him.
They kiss for a long time and eventually I have no choice but to put my fist to my mouth and pretend to clear my throat.
“I love you too,” Lisette whispers, gazing into Leif’s eyes.
I find myself smiling, and I turn to see Bethriel gazing at me fondly.
“You there! Girl!” an angry voice cries. We all turn to see the two prison guards. I recognize them as the ones who poured that disgusting porridge over me. “Stop!”
Just then, the gate begins rattling furiously, and inside we see Dragoron. He puts his fingers to his lips and says, “Membrana permeate!”
To everyone’s astonishment, Dragoron walks right through the barred gate door as if it were made of thin air.
“Did he just walk through that door?” Leif asks aloud.
“He is a level ten mage,” Bethriel says. “There’s pretty much nothing we can do to stop him.”
“Guards!” Dragoron calls, summing the two oafs to his side. “Get the prisoners and bring them to me!”
Taking Lisette’s hand, Leif says, “That’s our cue to move it or lose it!”
All four of us make a mad dash down the familiar hallway. We almost make it to the other exit, the same one where we happened upon the guards a few hours earlier, when all of a sudden an entire contingent of the Royal Guard bursts into the hallway. There’s at least half a dozen guards, and one of them points at us. “There! Those are the thieves that took my armor!”
“Face it, girl.” Dragoron’s voice arises behind us. “You’re surrounded. You have nowhere else to run. Give up now, and I promise you and your friends will be treated fairly.”
“Somehow, I doubt that,” I say, drawing my sword. My action sparks an equal reaction in the guards, and suddenly we are all holding our swords.
The guards take cautious steps toward us.
“Any ideas?” Leif asks.
“You can use the wind thing, right?” Lisette asks.
“I’m sorry,” I inform them. “But this is just the guard’s sword. I need the Moon Blade in order to manipulate the wind. And I’m pretty sure Zarine has it close by her side. Wherever she is.”
Leif lets out a sigh. “So, I guess we really are in a pickle.”
“Maybe not,” Bethriel interjects.
She holds up the Dragon Eye crystal. It’s glowing bright pink, as though a light burns inside of it.
“Is it supposed to do this?”
Suddenly the Juggernaut, off to the side, rises up and steps forward. From behind its dark visor are two glowing eyes. Both are the same radiant pink at the crystal.
“Uh, guys, it’s moving…” Leif says, his voice filled with anxiety.
The crystal rises into the air and hovers just in front of the giant armored automaton. The Juggernaut grabs the crystal and stuffs it inside its chest cavity. There is a loud blast of light, energy, and sound, and everyone is knocked to the ground. Everyone but Lisette.
“Lisette!” Leif cries out, stretching out his arm toward her. But she’s hovering in the air. Her veins are glowing bright pink, like the energy of the crystal.
“She’s floating in midair,” Bethriel gasps.
Without warning the crystal’s energy ceases, the pink light dissipates, and Lisette comes crashing to the ground.
Leif rushes to her and takes her in his arms. “Are you all right?”
“I believe so,” says Lissette. Her voice is week but she appears undamaged.
Suddenly the Juggernaut steps forward, and reaches toward Leif with its massive gauntleted hand. 「MOVE AWAY FROM THE GIRL!」 it booms in a mechanical voice. Its voice is so loud that everyone in the passage who is able covers their ears. Even Dragoron sticks a finger in his ear to help block out the violent noise.
The Juggernaut’s speech, although much like a man’s, has a machine-driven quality to it. It’s as if the churning, murmuring sound of gears can be heard in the back of the machine’s throat when he talks.
“Stop!” Lisette cries out. And to our surprise, the Juggernaut halts as commanded. “These are my friends,” she tells the giant living armor, as she points at Leif, Bethriel, and me as we stand in slack-jawed awe behind her.
“It worked!” Dragoron shouts excitedly. “The vessel bonded with
the machine!”
Ignoring him, Lisette points at all the guards surrounding us, including Dragoron and the jailers. “See those men?” she asks the machine. It scans the group of men encroaching in on our group. “Those are the bad men,” Lisette informs the Juggernaut. “They want to hurt me and my friends.”
「I WILL STOP THEM!」 the Juggernaut announces in its bellowing voice. It grabs the closest two guards, who happen to be our jailers, and picks them up by their heads.
Screaming and gripping the machine’s fingers, they beg for their lives. But the Juggernaut is indifferent to their pleas for help and easily tosses them twenty meters across the room. They slam into the back wall with breathtaking force and are instantly rendered unconscious, even before their bodies hit the ground.
The Royal Guard tighten their circle and move in to attack position, cautious not to excite the machine. But before they can make their move the Juggernaut begins thrashing its mammoth arms every direction, knocking them about as though they were toy soldiers.
“Now’s our chance,” Leif cries. “Let’s go!”
And he’s right. There’s no time to waste.
Hightailing it, we rush through the wide opening that the Juggernaut has made, and race past the guards, who are busy panicking as they have unleashed the ire of a Juggernaut.
Escaping the turmoil, we make our way to the rear archway that demarcates our exit. I pause and look back to make sure everyone gets out ahead of me. Once my friends our safe, I stay just long enough to see Dragoron try to follow us. But before he can advance, the Juggernaut steps in front of him and blocks his way.
Dragoron looks fearfully up at the machine, and at that very moment, the giant automaton throws out its arms and begins knocking down the massive support columns of the thirty-foot-high corridor. Each pillar topples to the ground with a thunderous crash, along with half of the stones from the high ceiling that cave in around it.
Satisfied that massive amount of rubble will be enough to stop Dragoron and his guards, I quickly make my way out the exit and meet back up with my friends in the courtyard outside.
31