by Clayton Wood
Safe.
Ariana stared back at Darius, clearly dissatisfied with this answer.
“You're supposed to be dead,” she accused, putting her hands on her hips. She turned back to Kyle. “You said if he didn't come back in one day, then Sabin had killed him!”
“That's what Darius told me,” Kyle stated rather defensively. Ariana stared back at him, a strange look on her face.
“Darius told you?” she asked. Kyle's eyes widened in horror, and he took a step back, glancing up at Darius...who was shaking his head slowly.
“I mean...” he stammered.
“Darius told you?” Ariana repeated, turning to face Darius. She inspected him for a long moment, and then her eyes widened, her jaw dropping. “Oh my...”
And then a cord of blue shot out from her forehead into Darius, and she immediately collapsed onto the ground.
“Ariana!” Kyle exclaimed. Darius sighed, his visor flashing bright white, then vanishing. The bodyguard stared at Kyle, continuing to shake his head.
“Seriously?” he asked.
“I'm sorry,” Kyle blurted out. “It just slipped out...”
“Put it back in,” Darius growled. “...and keep it there.” Kyle nodded, feeling his cheeks burning. He glanced down at Ariana, who was still lying unconscious on the ground.
“Is she going to remember?” he asked. Darius shook his head. Kyle breathed a sigh of relief, then frowned at the man. “Are you going to wake her up?”
“That depends,” Darius grumbled.
“Sorry,” Kyle mumbled. “You are supposed to be dead,” he added. As happy as he was to see his grandfather, he was more than a little irritated that the man had only now decided to show up. “You said if you didn't come back in one day, Sabin had killed you!”
“Wrong,” Darius retorted.
“No,” Kyle insisted. “That is what you said.”
“I said assume I was dead,” Darius countered calmly, folding his arms over his chest. Kyle felt righteous indignation rise within his breast.
“You said you were going to try to kill him!” he accused.
“I said I was going after him,” Darius corrected. “Which I am.”
“But...!” Kyle began, then stood there, fuming at the man. He'd been certain that Darius had said he was going to kill Sabin, but now he wasn't sure. Even so, Kyle still had the undeniable feeling that he'd been tricked somehow.
“You're welcome,” Darius said. Kyle blinked.
“What?”
Darius glanced at Kyle's forehead, and then at Ariana.
“Right. Thanks,” Kyle muttered. As usual, Darius had somehow managed to infuriate him within minutes of saving his life. There was no doubt about it...the man was surely gifted.
“Let's go,” Darius stated, stepping over Ariana and past Kyle. He stopped before the shattered section of the Spine of Grimore, the fifty or so feet of the path that had been destroyed by the Chosen. Mount Grimore's massive peak stood tall in the distance.
“Go where?” Kyle asked.
“There,” Darius replied, gesturing beyond the Spine. Kyle stared at the gulf between them and the remainder of the Spine.
“What are we going to do?”
“We're going to deal with Sabin,” Darius answered. “Once and for all.”
* * *
The sun beat down upon Ariana's head and shoulders as she made her way across the narrow path winding up the face of Mount Grimore. The trees around them – if they could even be called trees – were barely as tall as she was, with thick, gnarled branches. Moss hugged the rocks around her, huddling against the steadily cooling air. Ariana noticed Kyle shivering beside her, and she grabbed his hand, holding it in her own. She wished – not for the first time – that her body produced heat, so that she could huddle beside him and warm him up.
She looked forward then, at Ampir's black-armored back. The man hadn’t said a word since she'd awoken. She'd found herself lying down before the legendary Battle-Runic on the Spine of Grimore, between him and Kyle. She still couldn't believe that Ampir was really alive, really here...and that he was going to bring them straight to Sabin's doorstep.
How many times had she dreamed of this day? How many times over the last year, lying awake in bed at night in the Arena, had she imagined herself living this moment? Killing the Dead Man – and Xanos – had been her dark fantasy ever since they'd killed her parents. And though she'd brought Kyle here, plotting to kill Sabin once and for all, she'd never really allowed herself to believe that they could actually succeed. It had always been a long shot, one last desperate attempt to save everyone she loved – and to get revenge on the evil that had quite literally destroyed her life.
But now, with Ampir, they actually had a chance.
The path leveled off gradually, the steep rock slope giving way to a wide path that curved ever-so-slightly to the left. Vertical rock walls rose over a hundred feet above their heads on either side of the path; if it hadn't been for the noon sun being directly overhead, they would surely have been blanketed in the shadows thrown by those imposing walls. Ampir continued to lead them down this path, not even hesitating as he strode into the canyon. Ariana saw Kyle hesitate, slowing as the canyon walls rose around them.
“What's wrong?” she asked.
“I don't know,” he replied. She saw him stare at the canyon walls uneasily. She could hear his heart beating faster in his chest. “It reminds me of Crescent Lake,” he added after a moment.
“What do you mean?”
“Me and uh, Darius, went to go get some food in the woods,” Kyle answered. “We went to a place kinda like this, with cliffs. The Death Weavers attacked us there.”
“Oh,” Ariana replied. They continued silently around the gentle left curve of the canyon, until the path straightened out. The path beyond climbed at a shallow angle upward, the massive peak of the mountain visible high above in the distance.
...stand back...
Ariana stopped cold in her tracks, forcing Kyle to stop with her. She spun around, staring the way they'd come, and saw only the empty path behind her.
“What?” she heard Kyle ask. She turned forward again, shaking her head.
“Thought I heard something,” she replied. She glanced over her should again, then resumed walking.
...coming...
She spun around again, seeing nothing but the empty path. She turned back to Kyle, feeling a chill run through her.
“I know I just heard something,” she insisted. Kyle frowned.
“Heard what?” he pressed. “I didn't hear anything.” He turned to Ampir, who was still walking ahead of them. “Did you hear anything?” But Ampir didn't answer. Kyle turned back to Ariana. “He said he didn't hear anything.”
“No he didn't,” Ariana protested. “He didn't say anything.” Kyle blushed, and she narrowed her eyes at him. “What's going on?”
“He's sends me thoughts,” Kyle admitted. Ariana blinked.
“Has he been talking to you the entire time?” she asked. Kyle hesitated, and Ariana glared at him. “You've been talking behind my back?” she accused.
“No,” Kyle protested. “He hasn't said anything but that.” Ariana continued to glare at him. “Honest,” he insisted.
“Well I heard something,” she muttered. Still, she resumed walking, quickening her pace to catch up with Ampir.
...them pass...
She slowed, then stopped again.
“Did you hear something again?” Kyle asked. Ariana paused, then shook her head, feeling another chill run down her spine. The voice had been stronger this time, much more clear than before. So much so that she realized that she hadn't really heard anything.
It'd been in her head.
“Stop,” Ariana blurted out. She turned to Ampir, who was still walking. “Stop!” she cried, running up to him. Ampir slowed, then stopped, turning to face her. “There's a Chosen nearby!”
Ampir stared at her – or at least it seemed that way, as his eye
s were unseeable behind that visor – then turned around, continuing forward. Ariana stared at him incredulously, then turned to Kyle, who looked suddenly very pale.
“What?” she asked. Kyle swallowed, his Adam's apple moving up and down with the motion.
“He knows,” Kyle answered. He paused for a moment, then looked upward. “He says they're up there.”
Ariana turned her gaze upward, to the tops of the cliffs looming on either side of them, well over a hundred feet above. With her incredible vision, it didn't take her long to spot the dark shapes standing at the edge of the cliff. Figures clad in black cloaks, their faces obscured by the shadows cast by the dark hoods over their heads. Hundreds of them, standing shoulder-to-shoulder at the edge of both cliffs, all the way down the length of the canyon.
Not hundreds of them. Thousands of them.
Ariana felt terror grip her, and she took a step backward, staring up at those countless faces staring back down at her. She could feel them, the Chosen.
...your ground...
...them pass...
She shook her head, taking another step back.
“Ariana?” Kyle asked.
“I can't,” she stated, shaking her head again. She felt fear clutch at her, wrapping its dark tentacles around her heart and squeezing it. She knew that feeling, knew it all too well. She'd felt the exact same feeling around the Dead Man, when she'd been mortal. “I can't do this.” Kyle grabbed her hands in his own.
“It's okay,” he said. “We've got him now,” he added, nodding at Ampir's retreating form. Kyle smiled at her. “We've got Ampir.” Ariana stared at Ampir, then back at the countless Chosen looming over them. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath in, then letting it out. She pictured the Defiance, its sails engulfed in flames, its crew set to flee. Pictured the mouth of the cave Petra had tested her in. She'd gone through so much, and had gotten so far.
Remember your mission, she thought.
She opened her eyes, turning her gaze upward to glare at the Chosen, her jaw clenched tight. She pictured her parents' house engulfed in flames, screams echoing through the night air.
I'm going to make you pay, she promised, wondering if they could hear her thoughts.
“Let's go,” she said, slipping one hand out of Kyle's and striding forward. Kyle walked beside her, and they once again caught up to Ampir. The path continued forward for a while, until they came to another left turn. Beyond this, the canyon fanned out, growing much wider. The path continued upward at a gentle incline, the canyon walls rising high above. Countless Chosen continued to line the tops of the walls, standing motionless, their black cloaks rippling in the wind. Huge statues rose high above the hundred-foot cliff walls on either side, each easily three times as tall as the canyon itself, their stout legs and feet embedded into the rock. With their thick torsos, their wide-spaced arms, and their domed heads, it was all-too-obvious what they represented.
“Behemoths,” Ariana heard Kyle whisper. She felt him tense up, heard his heart beating quicker.
“They're just statues,” Ariana countered, trying to sound reassuring. She stared up at one of those domed heads, spotting the white diamond-shaped crystalline eye there. Eerily enough, it looked like the statue was looking right at her. A trick of their design, no doubt, in order to cast fear into anyone who dared venture here.
“I don't think so,” Kyle countered in a harsh whisper. Ariana glanced back up at the statue, and saw that it did indeed look like it was still watching her. She frowned, continuing forward, following Ampir down the long path upward.
The statue's head shifted, dust and small pebbles falling from the canyon wall around it, that lone eye tracking her as she went.
Ariana's throat tightened, and she quickened her pace, catching up to Ampir and walking alongside him, with Kyle at her left and Ampir at her right. She looked up at another statue, then another, and saw their massive heads following them as they passed.
“Ampir?” she asked, grabbing onto the silent Battle-Runic's left arm. He said nothing, but he didn't pull away either. He continued forward up the path, ignoring the Chosen and the statues around him. Ariana tried to do the same, keeping her eyes forward, but she could still hear the disjointed fragments of the Chosen's thoughts in her mind, like a crowd quietly whispering all around her.
It made her skin crawl.
The path continued upward and forward, until it began to level off. As it did so, it revealed a sudden end to the canyon, a massive rocky hill rising in a dome high above the canyon walls around it. Beyond and above this dome, the steep mountainside shot upward high into the sky, forming Mount Grimore's peak hundreds of feet above.
Ariana stared at that peak, then lowered her gaze back to the path. It led to a giant hole in the center of the dome, the gaping maw of a cave. Ariana felt a chill run through her, and realized beyond any doubt that this must be the cave Petra had told them about. The one she'd been leading them toward before the Chosen had attacked.
The entrance to Sabin's lair.
Ampir led them toward it, the crunch, crunch of his black boots on the scattered pebbles underfoot never wavering in their steady rhythm. Ariana could feel the eyes of the Behemoths and the Chosen staring down at them, countless silent sentinels watching their every move.
If they wanted to attack, she thought, they already would've.
So why hadn't they?
The end of the wide path drew near, the mouth of the cave now only some fifty feet away. The entrance to the massive domed hill was at least fifty feet high and a hundred feet wide, large enough to send an army of men through. She felt Kyle squeezing her hand, and she turned to him. His face was awfully flushed, and he was taking deep, gulping breaths.
“What's wrong?” Ariana asked. Kyle stopped walking, and let go of her hand, bending over and resting his palms on his thighs. He shook his head.
“Can't...breathe,” he gasped.
“Ampir!” Ariana warned, pulling on the Battle-Runic's arm. Ampir stopped, turning to face Kyle. Then he turned back to the cave entrance. Ariana felt a powerful thrumming in her mind's eye, and suddenly the air around them burst into a fine cloud of black dust. The dust fell slowly to the ground, and Kyle's complexion began to clear, his breath coming much easier.
“Thanks,” Kyle mumbled.
“What happened?” Ariana asked. Kyle stood straight up, grabbing her hand in his own.
“He says it's carbon dioxide,” Kyle answered. “The cave is filled with it.”
“What's carbon...whatever you said?” Ariana pressed.
“Poison gas,” Kyle explained. “I think it was in the other cave too,” he added. “Ampir turned it into oxygen and carbon,” he added. “That's the black dust.”
“Oh,” Ariana said, not really understanding. “So it's safe now?” Kyle nodded.
“I think so.”
Ampir turned forward again, continuing his steady stride into the mouth of the domed cave. The shadows cast by the gaping maw swallowed him whole, his footsteps echoing throughout the cavern beyond. Kyle and Ariana glanced at each other, then followed behind the man, hand-in-hand.
* * *
Kyle felt a chill as he stepped out of the sunlight streaming into the wide canyon, crossing over into the shadows thrown by the gray and brown stone arch that marked the entrance to Sabin's lair. He shivered, squeezing Ariana's hand as they passed through. She squeezed him back, giving him a weak smile. He knew what they were both thinking.
This was it.
Kyle sneezed as he breathed in the musty air of the cave, black dust still hanging in the air, swirling in the gentle breeze blowing out of the cave entrance and back into the canyon. The cave was enormous, even taller and wider than the entrance had been. It was also pitch black, the sunlight making it only a few yards in. Ampir continued to walk forward into that utter blackness, only visible due to the blue magic of his armor's runes. Though Kyle could see the magic even in the darkness, that magic cast no actual light on Ampir's surr
oundings. Every step forward was like walking into the abyss of space, a leap of faith that there would be more ground beyond. Kyle didn't dare slow down or stop, knowing that Ampir would almost certainly leave them behind if he did. But with each step Kyle took, fear grew in his heart, tightening its grip on him. He squeezed Ariana's hand – hard – and was about to create a magical light when Ampir stopped.
Kyle felt a powerful vibration in his skull then, reverberating through his bones. He saw blue light burst from his limbs, outlining them in the pitch blackness. The light vanished, and suddenly Kyle felt the bitter chill of the cold mountain air vanish, replaced by a comfortable warmth. He even felt lighter somehow, and the aching in his legs and back from the climb up the mountain were gone. He heard Ariana take a sharp breath in, and felt something cool and hard in his right hand, where her hand had been seconds ago. He let go, taking a step back.
A light appeared from high above, a single white globe some thirty feet above their heads. Kyle squinted against the sudden brightness, blinking rapidly, then opened his eyes wider as they adjusted.
They were standing in a tunnel over a hundred feet wide, the walls curving upward to the roughly-hewn ceiling above. Ampir was standing before Kyle and Ariana, facing them. Kyle turned to Ariana, and then blinked, staring at her in disbelief. Where she'd moments ago been covered from head to toe in her Reaper uniform, now she was clad in black, metallic armor. Her armor looked awfully similar to Ampir's, though much simpler in its appearance, and with no blue runes flashing on its surface. He realized that Ariana was staring back at him with a similar expression. He looked down, and saw that he too was wearing black metal armor, identical to Ariana's. He gasped, staring at his hands. They were covered in metal gauntlets, but he couldn't feel the weight of them; it was as if he weren't wearing anything at all. He touched his armored belly, and was surprised to feel the cool metal of it under his fingertips.
“What the...” he began, then raised his fingers to his face. He could feel the warm skin of his lips and cheek as if his hands were bare...as if they weren't covered in thick metal! He saw Ariana do the same, bringing her right gauntlet to her face, her eyes widening in disbelief.