Mid-conversation with Regina, Lori shouted, “Everyone, stop!”
Most of us stopped in our tracks, but Mallum didn’t stop in time. He walked right into Regina, knocking her onto a blue tile.
A warrior statue, about six feet tall, lunged toward her, a spear gripped tightly in his stone hand. His eyes, glowing blue, were fixed on her.
Mallum yanked her back onto the neutral-colored part of the floor and jumped between her and the statue, shielding her with himself. The statue halted with his spear just inches from Mallum’s chest. The statue itself hadn’t crossed over the line that separated the colored tiles from the neutral-colored part of the floor.
Both Mallum and Regina stood frozen for a moment, breathing heavily, as if trying to process what had just happened.
Without moving from his protective stance in front of Regina, he asked, “Are you okay?”
Regina nodded, still shocked. “Y-yeah, I’m fine. You got me out of the way in time.” After hesitating a moment, she added, “You could’ve been killed.”
Mallum, after double-checking to make sure the statue hadn’t moved, finally relaxed and turned to face her. He shrugged in response to her statement. “Better me than you.”
For a silent and awkward few seconds after Mallum’s statement, Regina couldn’t seem to find the right words to say. Finally, she settled on, “Thank you.”
He gave her a small, almost sad, smile. “You’re welcome.”
“Okay,” Comrade said, getting us back on track. “So the blue tiles trigger those warrior statue guys, right? This must be some sort of colored tile puzzle. These other colors—red, yellow, green, and purple—must trigger other obstacles, like arrows or something.”
“Puzzles down here usually come with some sort of instructions in poem form,” I recalled. “Does anyone see any inscriptions anywhere?”
Steven was already at the wall where it was written. He stood on his tiptoes, trying desperately to see the plaque that was just barely too high for him to read, even when on his tiptoes.
“I-I’m too short,” he finally admitted in defeat. “I c-can’t translate the plaque if it’s up there.”
“Want some help, Peterson?” Tom asked. When it came to height, Tom towered over all of us. Even Mallum was shorter than him, though not by much.
Steven nodded. Tom grabbed him and lifted him up. Once Steven confirmed that he was up high enough, Tom held him there. His arms shook a little bit from the strength it must have taken, but he held Steven up there steadily enough for him to translate.
“This is a long one,” Steven remarked, “but I think I can translate it exactly.” He read it aloud.
Red for the arrows that aim to impale
Yellow for creatures that sting by the tail
Green for the darts that aim for your heart
Blue for the statues that tear you apart
Purple for snakes, venom in their bite
All you must either dodge or fight
Tom set Steven down a bit clumsily, but without incident.
“Okay, so if we stand on the tiles, those obstacles are triggered, right?” Comrade asked.
I nodded as an idea formed in my mind. “Our best bet is probably to make sure we all stand on the same color of tile, then fight or dodge that specific obstacle until we make it past the colored tiles and back onto normal stone.”
“If the tiles are triggered by standing on them, I can just fly over to the other side,” Tom pointed out. “I can’t take anyone with me, but then I won’t be taking up one of the tiles that someone else might need.”
“I can shapeshift into something that flies and do the same,” Lori volunteered.
“That’s a good idea,” I confirmed. “You two can fly over first, that way none of the obstacles hit you while we’re on the tiles.”
“Sounds good,” Lori said. She shapeshifted into a beautiful, white dove and flew across the tiles, changing direction only slightly and on occasion to avoid a frozen statue or its spear. Once she reached the other side, she shapeshifted back into a human girl. Tom followed, using the Leather Boots. His control while flying still amazed me.
“The poem thingy said red was for arrows and green for darts, right?” Felix asked. “I have the Copper Shield, so I can put up a forcefield around me and two other people. We could go on both red and green tiles, but I’m only confident I can protect two other people with me and keep the forcefield up around us the whole time. Taking any more than that would put us at a greater risk than I’m willing to take.”
“Okay,” I said. “Who are you going to take with you?”
“Since Lena has the amulet with Gabrielle, I think she should be one of the people,” Regina proposed.
“Okay, I’m fine with that,” Felix confirmed.
“Valida should be the other person,” David said. “She’s the Magenta, after all.”
“No, I shouldn’t be the other person,” I protested. “I have my fire and weather abilities. I have an advantage over the tiles that trigger those freaky-looking snakes and scorpions,” I said, motioning to the human-sized scorpions and long, thin snakes that were frozen across the tiles.
“What about you, Mallum?” Lena suggested.
He shook his head. “I’m decent with my sword, so I’ll be fine fighting alongside Valida. Besides, if something did somehow happen, better to leave the Dark Power without its temporary host.”
Lena glared at him. “You aren’t as expendable as you think, Mallum Frond, and I don’t want to hear you talk like that anymore. You’re just as important as the rest of us.”
Regina bit her lip. “I hate to break it to you, Lena, but Mallum has a point.” Upon noticing the glare that Lena was giving her, she quickly added, “About him being good with the sword, I mean. Mallum is at least as good with his sword as the rest of us.”
“Fine,” she yielded, turning to Mallum, “but you’d better try your best to defend yourself or so help me—”
“Okay, okay!” Mallum said, his hands raised in surrender. “I love you too.”
Her glare was replaced with an anxious look. “Just...don’t pull anything, okay?”
Mallum put his arm around her. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”
“Alright, who’s going to be the other person under my forcefield, then?” Felix asked.
“N-not me,” Steven said. “I have the Lightning Bolt Amulet to defend m-myself.”
“I vote for David to go with Felix,” Comrade said. “He doesn’t have any cool abilities and his swordsmanship is awful.”
“Hey!” David protested.
“Any opposed to David coming with me?” Felix asked.
Nobody spoke up for a few seconds.
“Okay, sounds good,” Felix said, summoning the Copper Shield. “Everyone who’s coming with me, remember to only step on tiles that are either red or green. Poisoned and pointy projectiles are easily deflected by the Copper Shield”
Lena and David nodded in acknowledgement as a forcefield was formed around them and Felix. Its surface shimmered, but was mostly transparent. Every time Felix, Lena, or David moved, the surface of the forcefield would shimmer around them like the surface of a bubble.
Stepping on only red and green tiles, they made it across the tiles without incident. Arrows and darts shot at them from all directions, but each one of them bounced harmlessly off of the forcefield. Once they were all across, I turned to the rest of the Legendary Keepers.
“Whatever you do, avoid the red, green, and blue tiles,” I reminded them. “We don’t know the weaknesses of the statues and we don’t have any protection against arrows and darts. Yellow and purple tiles are our best bets.”
Mallum nodded, unsheathing his sword. “Let’s go.”
◆◆◆
Even with all of us triggering the same two obstacles, we were barely surviving.
The human-sized scorpions struck so quickly that it was nearly impossible to dodge their strikes. The snakes slithered around faster t
han we could move. Once beheaded, the heads still struck at our ankles. I had to constantly move around on my tile, even though it was too small to go more than a single small step in any direction, just to avoid them.
While practically jogging in place to avoid the snake heads, I summoned a storm above us. Underground storms were harder to make, but I managed it in only a few seconds longer than normal storms. I willed bolts of lightning to strike the scorpion lunging for Mallum and the two or three snake heads trying to bite my ankles.
“Keep moving!” I screamed at my friends as I stepped onto a yellow tile. Some of the snakes and snake heads froze where they were, but some of the scorpions came to life in their place. I shot fire at them, frying a few, but still barely making it to the next tile. I stuck to the yellow ones as much as possible, since the scorpions were slightly slower than the snakes and only survived one or two fireballs.
A few bolts of lightning struck the scorpions that were heading my way. I glanced up to see that Steven had made it to safety on the other side of the tiles. The Lightning Bolt Amulet around his neck glowed as he used hand motions to direct lightning strikes around us. Mallum and Regina were on the other side too, anxiously watching Comrade, Selene, and me. We were the last few that hadn’t made it yet.
I gritted my teeth against mounting fear. Just a few more tiles to go. I mentally mapped out my route, thankful that the rest of the tiles I would have to step on would be yellow. I really hated the snakes that the purple tile triggered. I moved quickly and made it to the other side with Steven’s help.
Just as I made it to safety, I heard Selene scream. One of the scorpions had stung her sword arm. She’d dropped her sword and her arm was hanging limply at her side. She barely grabbed her sword with her other hand when the scorpion went for a second strike. There was no way she could get her sword up in time, especially with her nondominant hand.
Comrade leapt in front of her, his sword barely getting up in time to slice off the stinger of the scorpion as it came down. Since the tile wasn’t quite big enough to fit both Selene and Comrade, Selene ended up halfway on a blue tile, triggering a statue.
“Look out!” she yelled at Comrade, grabbing him by the arm with her good hand and pulling him onto a purple tile next to a yellow one that she moved to. The statue froze where it stood, with its mace just inches from bashing Comrade’s head in. If he’d been much taller, he probably would’ve been killed.
The snakes and scorpions unfroze.
“Go!” Comrade urged Selene, not bothering with his deep voice. He sounded about our age. He sliced off one of the snakes’ heads with his sword. “I’ll cover you!”
“You’ll get yourself killed!”
“Shut up and get moving or I just might!”
Selene stepped from purple or yellow tile to purple or yellow tile as fast as she could. Comrade followed close behind, fighting off the creatures that came for them. Selene had barely made it to safety when Comrade cried out and collapsed on the last two tiles before he would’ve made it to safety.
A snake head had bitten his leg. He was on a purple and a yellow tile, but had no way to defend himself.
“Comrade!” Selene screamed.
Felix sprang into action, putting up a forcefield around Comrade right as a scorpion’s stinger tried to strike. The forcefield also extended to Selene, who was right by the edge that divided the colored tiles from safety.
“Go!” Felix urged her. “Help Comrade!”
She nodded in acknowledgement and dragged him over to safety using her good arm. The obstacles on the colored tiles froze again. Felix lowered the forcefield and dismissed the Copper Shield. Comrade's breathing was shaky at best and he looked like he was in agony.
Lena dropped to her knees next to him and dug a small vial of stuff that looked like mustard. “Take his mask and hood off,” she ordered, opening the vial.
Selene got them off of him as fast as she could with just one usable arm. Lena poured the vial down his throat, then put a hand on his head and the other on his chest and muttered something. The rest of us stood in shock, staring at Comrade’s unmasked face.
“No,” Selene breathed, eyes wide as she leapt back. “It’s not possible.”
The Classified Comrade had blond hair, now a bit shaggier and more disheveled than when I’d last seen it, and was someone that only Lori, David, and Lena likely wouldn’t recognize.
William Johnson.
Chapter 21
William cracked his blue eyes open as color started to return to his face. Lena’s antidote and spell were working. Upon seeing the death glare on Selene’s face, he closed his eyes and grimaced, as if bracing himself for the harsh words he knew would follow.
“I can explain—” he began weakly.
“I should have left you to die,” Selene spat.
“Selene,” I said more sternly than I planned. “Let him explain.”
“I don’t care about his explanation!” she fumed. Her hand gestures got more and more agitated, even though one arm still hung limp by her side. “I can’t believe you would take his side in this, Valida! How could you?”
Lena helped William sit up, as if she wasn’t hearing Selene’s outbursts. She handed a vial to Selene to drink. “This will heal your arm,” she promised.
Selene grudgingly took it and drank it all in one gulp, then handed the vial back to Lena. She turned her death glare back on William.
He weakly fixed his eyes on her. “Please,” he begged, his breathing still shaky, but slowly becoming steadier. “Just let me explain—”
“I’m with Robbins,” Tom interrupted with crossed arms as he glared down at his former friend. “You’ve got nerve, Johnson, coming back here to spy on us again.”
“Look, I didn’t come back to spy on you,” William corrected. “I messed up. I messed up really badly, and innocent people are dead because of it.” Despite not being completely cured of the snake’s venom yet, William’s voice was full of frustration and remorse. “I never wanted to get roped into this mess, okay? I would’ve rather died than betray you!”
“Then why did you do it?” I asked.
“It wasn’t my life on the line.”
“Then whose was?” Selene demanded. Her tone was unforgiving.
I was trying to keep a somewhat open mind—especially since, as the Classified Comrade, William had been a crucial ally—but his story wasn’t making sense.
“My younger sister, Summer,” William answered, his voice tight. “Selene, I gave Esora the information she wanted in exchange for Summer’s life. I swear I wouldn’t have done it if it were my life on the line. If your little sister’s life depended on it, wouldn’t you have done the same thing?” His plea was desperate.
With a pained expression on his face, David breathed, “Without a doubt.”
Selene’s expression softened a bit, but I could tell she was still trying to stay hardhearted. It was Mallum who spoke next.
“Once Esora knew that the Legendary Keepers would be going to Lythacan soon to get their hands on the Brass Compass, she decided she’d get there first and destroy everything, including any hope for the Legendary Keepers and their allies in the Battle of Saviena.” Mallum looked at William, his eyes sad, and said, “Despite your cooperation, Esora killed Summer. She’d served her purpose. Esora tried to kill you too, but you got away.”
Tears were streaming down William’s face as he nodded.
“How did you know?” I asked Mallum.
“I’ve worked with my sister enough to know that her prisoners are killed as soon as they’ve served their purposes,” Mallum answered bitterly, his fists clenched. “She doesn’t care if it breaks a deal. She doesn’t care if it tears a family to pieces.” He lowered his voice as his throat went tight and tears formed in his own eyes as well. “She doesn’t even care if it destroys her own family.”
After double-checking to make sure William could sit up on his own, Lena stood and wordlessly placed a comforting hand on Mallum
’s shoulder.
“Wait,” Lori said. “Esora killed members of her own family?”
After waiting a moment, Lena answered with, “It was a few years ago, but yes. Mallum’s father, Mekaz, managed to escape and went into hiding. His mother, Velia, wasn’t so lucky.”
“Why would Esora do that?” Lori asked, her voice heavy.
“I-I don’t want to talk about it.” Mallum’s voice was tight and I could tell he was having a hard time not breaking down entirely. His mom must have meant a lot to him. I didn’t think I could stand losing my mom. I’d almost lost her and Dad once. I didn’t want that—or something worse—to happen again.
“I think we need to stop early for the night,” Selene proposed, rubbing her temples. “It’s been a long day and I think we all need time to think.”
“Let’s go for a little while longer,” Lori suggested. “At least, until we find a good spot to set up camp.” She motioned toward the frozen obstacles we’d faced earlier. “Personally, I doubt I could sleep peacefully with all of those things so close by.”
“Can you walk?” Lena asked William.
He shakily got to his feet. The antidote had worked wonders, but he still needed time before he’d fully be healed. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Okay, off we go then,” Lori said in a more cheerful mood than I thought the situation called for. Still, we all followed her as she led us through the winding corridors of the Labyrinth again.
I hung back with Selene in the middle of the group. William tried to walk close to her as well, but he was struggling to keep up. He was limping on the leg that the snake head had bitten. Selene made no move to help him, although she seemed torn about it.
William sounded sincere earlier, but I understood why Selene didn’t want to trust him. Once trust is broken, it rarely fully reforms. I had mixed feelings about William myself, but he’d helped us enough as the Classified Comrade so far that I felt it was best to give him another chance, even if it was a cautious one. Especially after hearing his sincerity when we were paired for a watch last night.
The Stone of Power (The Legendary Keepers Book 2) Page 9