“Our way in,” I said, moving forward.
Chapter 8
Under a Cloud of Suspicion
Lorna and I crept up the steps, keeping ourselves a good ten feet back from the yellow fog.
“So weird that it seems to know where to go.” I stayed alert, afraid the portal ninjas would come storming out of the ministry at any second. A glance over my shoulder confirmed their disgusting portal was still open.
“What are we doing here?” Lorna asked.
“Going in and looking for our prophecy. It’s the perfect cover. We just have to steer clear of the fog and the portal ninjas.”
“That’s what you landed on? Portal ninjas?”
“You have a better idea?” I asked. We were now at the doors. I watched the tail end of the fog disappear inside.
“Felix, did you ever think that these portal ninjas of yours are here for the same thing as we are? If so, we’re not going to get close to it.”
“That would make sense and fit in with the convenience of them staging a forced entry at the same time as we needed access.”
“Yeah, I think Kni and Ed have something to do with that,” she said. “We’re both backed by their powers of happenstance or whatever right now.”
“But that’s good. It means things should break our way.” I liked that we kept coming to the same conclusions. Having someone to navigate through all this strangeness was a plus. I stepped delicately through the broken glass, hating how crunchy our progress was.
“Kind of surprised our coincidence gods haven’t tracked us down already.” Lorna stepped through first.
We found ourselves in a large lobby, the ceiling stretching high and showcasing the rounded interior of the dome.
Lorna veered left, trailing safely behind the yellow fog, which had entered a long corridor.
We stepped over an unconscious guard, his long ears betraying his elven heritage.
She picked up his sword as we entered the corridor. “Looks like they hire magicals.”
“But those two at the gate didn’t seem like any magical species I know of.”
“Maybe they’re less obvious ones. Could be vampires or another type that looks relatively human.” She tiptoed down the hall, bringing her sword up when she encountered an open door to the left. She peered in and lost interest.
I caught up and saw the room was a small office. A woman slumped over her desk, unconscious. Her dragonfly wings, hung limply from her back. Fairy, more than likely.
“Don’t you find all this a bit much?” I asked.
Lorna said, “How do you mean?”
“Well, that everyone has their own set of gods. There are magicals doing the less glamorous jobs and then a mysterious bunch of higher-ups overseeing the whole mess.”
Lorna rounded a corner and sped up. “C’mon, can’t let the fog get too far ahead.”
I drew up beside her. We both gave any open rooms a cursory glance. I eyed her sword. I really wanted a weapon of my own. Hopefully, we’d come across another guard that I could loot.
“So you don’t find all this way too complex?”
“No more than the idea of Heaven and Hell. I mean, with that you have all these angels and demons running about. There are the different circles of Hell, and I’m sure the Pearly Gated community has its different areas as well. Like isn’t there seraphim and cherubim or something? And then there’s Purgatory. It doesn’t seem too different than all that.”
“So do you think this negates the idea of God and the Devil?”
We approached a doorway that clearly led to a stairwell. Its metal door was propped open. That made sense. I imagined one of the portal ninjas taking the lead and opening the doors to allow the cloud to slip through. This was a well thought out break-in. They had to know where they were going. All we had to do was follow.
“Don’t know, maybe.” She paused on the stairs, keeping an eye on the retreating fog. At the same time, she clearly strained to hear any hint of the portal ninjas presence ahead. “Look, if we stop to truly think about what’s happening to us, we’ll freeze up and get nothing done. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to see the world end just because I couldn’t come to grips with a new reality.”
I knew she wasn’t criticizing me, she was just being pragmatic. I admired that.
We continued down the stairs. “Sorry, I’m a thinker. I like to really mull things over.”
She grinned, stopping at a door that was propped open thanks to the hooved foot of an unconscious minotaur. Another guard. Proof of that was the small mace that lay off to the side, having fallen from his outstretched right hand. I picked it up, surprised at its weight.
She smirked, clearly catching I struggled with the mace’s heaviness. “We need to look out for each other, Felix. I’m glad—”
Muted voices issued from behind the door. I pressed a finger to her lips, cutting her short.
We both tensed and drew closer to the stairwell door. I risked pulling it open a few more inches.
“You sure you can disable the protection spell, Theo?” someone with a nasally voice said.
It had to be the portal ninjas.
“Yeah, I got it. Don’t you worry. If you could just shut your trap and let me concentrate on carving this last sigil.” The carver spoke with a much deeper tone.
Lorna pulled the door open wide enough to slip through. I wanted to hiss a warning for her to stay put but knew it would be useless.
She dropped onto all fours and crawled into the hallway. I followed.
Thankfully, the hall was empty except for another unconscious guard, this one some sort of shadow creature. I almost traded its longer and surely lighter dagger for my mace but thought better of it. The guard still clutched the weapon and, if I tried to remove it, I feared waking the creature.
We both stood, maintaining a slight crouch to make ourselves less of a target.
“You’re not tempted to just grab a few random scrolls?” a third voice said, this one slightly wavery.
“Trev, she wouldn’t like that. Destroying so many prophecies is going to magnify the chaos to the point of no return,” the carver said.
“Actually, you mean to the point of our queen’s return,” said the first speaker, who sounded the closest.
We had slowly moved down the hall a good ten feet. The ninjas occupied a room at the very end of the hall that had two doors. The yellow fog stuck out of the room.
A scraping sound behind us made me stiffen.
The minotaur’s leg disappeared, and the stairwell door closed. A second later, it opened and the hooved guard stumbled into the corridor, crashing into the far wall. He hugged it and steadied himself. He looked at Lorna and me, and his eye widened when he saw I held his mace.
At the same moment, two of the portal ninjas emerged. Spotting us, the lead ninja shouted, “Got company! Send out the cloud.”
The minotaur charged. He nearly tumbled over, but righted himself at the last second and continued forward, becoming more and more assured with each step.
“Minotaur’s up. Told you they’re a stubborn magical.” The portal ninja glared at us. “Got two celestials the cloud must’ve missed.”
The fog rolled out into the hall and sped toward us.
The minotaur shoved himself into me and groped at his mace. His eyes juddered about. He was still a little out of it.
Suddenly, we were in the cloud. I closed my mouth. The guard did the same.
Lorna punched the guard in the gut.
The minotaur exhaled sharply and just as quickly took in a breath.
And that was all it took. His eyes rolled back, his hairy fingers dropped away from the mace, and he fell. His snout landed on my right foot rather hard, and I let out a yelp.
Unfortunately, I took in a lungful of the fog.
And nothing happened.
I drew in another breath. Lorna stared at me, frightened at what I was doing.
A portal ninja slammed into me, sending m
e to the ground.
I scrambled away from him, almost dropping my weapon. I took two more breaths.
My attacker no longer wore a mask. He looked to be in his twenties. He had a beard and was bald. He was confused that I was still on my feet.
I heard Lorna suddenly draw in a breath. I didn’t spare a glance to see if she lost consciousness. I had to hope the mist wouldn’t affect her either.
Another portal ninja appeared at his side, his mask still on. “What’s the deal? How are they still standing? Knock the wind out of them.” It was the nasally-voiced one.
The bearded ninja punched me in the side. I grunted and took in a deep breath as I stumbled backward.
This didn’t go unnoticed. “They can breathe it, too. What’s going on here? Did she send another squad as back up?”
A shriek rang out. I glanced into the room to see Lorna had stabbed a ninja in the shoulder. The man clutched at his injury and cursed. He backed away from her.
I swung my mace about, not so much to tag anyone as to keep them at bay.
The maskless one attacked again.
I clipped him on the arm, and he howled. I quickly saw why. I hadn’t hit him that hard, but I’d landed a blow on the very spot struck by the arrow earlier.
He said, “Theo, are you done? These guys are definitely not with us.”
I noticed the fourth ninja carving symbols on the far wall. He etched out two more and spun around. All in all, his handiwork had yielded three lines of strange glowing glyphs.
The carver said, “It’s done. Got two minutes before she blows.”
The portal ninjas fled, ignoring us as they emptied out of the room and raced down the hall. The yellow fog moved with them, although they raced far ahead of it, obviously no longer concerned with using it to disable any they encountered. They were in too much of a hurry.
With the fog gone, we became aware of the sheer size and contents of the room. It was more a small warehouse with shelving everywhere. Each was filled with wooden nooks containing rolled-up scrolls. There had to be over a hundred scrolls in the room. Something told me this was just one of many areas in the ministry that housed prophecies. I also had a hunch that the ninjas had come to this specific room because they’d been after the same thing. After all, coincidence still held sway over the both of us.
Lorna glared at the etched symbols, which were now glowing brighter and brighter. “We need to go, too.”
I’d heard the Theo ninja. Whatever they had done, their intention was clear. The ministry was about to blow up. I studied the symbols. If I hacked away at the wall with the mace, messed up the carvings in some way, would it stop the countdown? I took a step toward the wall.
Lorna seemed to understand what I was contemplating. “No guarantee that whatever you try will work.” She looked around the room. “And it’s not like there’s a flashing timer to know if we stopped it. We’ve got like a minute, Felix. Time to go.”
She was right. I gave the nearest stash of scrolls a frantic look. I grabbed the two closest ones, hoping by sheer luck, or coincidence, I had gotten the right one. Lorna snatched up three near her.
We sprinted down the hall, past the unconscious minotaur and shadow guard. I hated that there were obviously people in the ministry who would go up with it, but neither of us could drag these two out. They were just too big and heavy. I could only hope whatever magical explosion happened it would be confined to the scroll room.
Why had the minotaur dropped to the ground and not us?
We bounded up the steps and out to the lobby. Two guards struggled to their feet.
Lorna shouted at them, “Get out! They planted a bomb!”
The guards, one who had to be a ghost, judging from his see-through appearance, and the other, some sort of orc or ogre, shot us looks but heeded her warning. They ran toward the front doors on shaky legs, still recovering from the fog, evidently.
As we raced down the steps, a muffled explosion sounded. Windows to our right blew out on the lowest level. Red smoke surged from the closest window.
We made it to the gate and stopped. The ghost guard glared at us and at the damaged section of the ministry. “Did you do this?” He suddenly became more solid, and a scythe appeared in his hands. He pointed it at us.
We both put our hands up, dropping our scrolls.
I said, “It wasn’t us.” I looked down the street. The large portal was still there but was rapidly collapsing. “Four guys all in red came out of there and did it. They knocked you out with some sort of yellow mist. We went in to stop them.”
The ghost and his partner eyed the portal. When it winked out of existence, they again glared at me.
The orc, at least that’s what I thought it was because it had so many spikes sticking out of its face and shoulders, said, “I remember the fog and then nothing until I woke up to you guys telling us to leave the ministry.”
Lorna said, “Who were they?”
A familiar voice called out from behind us. “Part of the queen’s cult, loyal disciples.”
Lorna and I spun around to see Ed and Kni exiting a rectangular portal. The rift swirled shut as they raced toward us. Both gods were furious.
The ghost guard brought his blade closer to my chest. I flinched but didn’t back away.
Kni strolled over and put his hand on the scythe’s shaft. He pushed it down and away by a few inches. “We got this, guys. Our mortals, our responsibility.”
The ghost guard snorted. “That explains why the fog didn’t get them.” His scythe disappeared, but he still stuck close, keenly ready to grab us if we suddenly fled.
Ed said, “Relax, they’re our problem.” He picked up all five scrolls and shot the guard a look. “Don’t worry. I’ll return these after we enter them in as evidence.”
The orc said, “You know where to take these fools next. A breach by mortals is a serious matter. The Dominion is off limits to them. You two really screwed up.” He glanced at our deities.
Kni nudged Lorna and me through the battered gates. “Agreed, Paladin Roup. We will not let them out of our sight.”
Ed lingered, conversing with the ghost for a while longer before joining us.
They led us down the street, past the spot where the portal had appeared. The deities the mist had knocked out were stirring. All scrambled to their feet, briefly noting our passing before the smoke emerging from the ministry got their attention. Most rushed over to investigate.
Ed said, “You two really made a mess.”
I wanted to argue that it wasn’t our fault but held my tongue.
Lorna said, “Where are you taking us? Back to our god wheels?”
Kni didn’t meet her gaze. “No. You’ve just landed yourselves an audience . . . with the powers that be.”
Chapter 9
Naming Names
Our gods walked us through the city in silence. Once or twice, Ed expressed his outrage, but Kni calmed him and urged his fellow god to wait until we reached our destination.
They took us to a large building that seemed to be all glass windows. It was the tallest edifice so far, easily over ten stories. No one came and went from its front entrance.
We climbed the steps and entered the building. Kni checked us in with the woman at the front desk and soon we were taking an elevator to the tenth floor.
We walked down a long corridor, arriving at an impressive door with ornate gold handles shaped to look like feathered wings.
Kni opened the door and whispered to us, “Be respectful.”
The office was immense. The brown shag carpeting was so thick we had to consciously lift our feet higher than normal. Part of me feared if I didn’t, the static build-up from shuffling through the dense fibers would supercharge me to the point of bringing about my own electrocution.
Three tall, narrow windows, each framed by green velvet drapes, were situated behind the only two items of furniture in the entire space. A rectangular piece of glass several inches thick floated three feet
off the ground. It looked far too heavy to defy gravity, but it did so nonetheless. A yellow legal pad, a pen, and a small electronic tablet rested on its surface. Behind the futuristic desk, the office’s sole occupant sat in a sleek modern chair made of one continuous piece of black plastic bent in an S-inspired shape.
A short man with round spectacles pushed to the tip of his nose stared at Kni and Ed, not once fixing his gaze on Lorna or me. Wrinkles surrounded his eyes, and he had a few age spots on his cheeks. He looked well north of a hundred. He was bald and wore a red jogging suit with blue racing stripes gracing the pants. His feet were bare, and he wiggled his gnarled toes with slight impatience.
I had expected a tribunal, a roomful of celestials all sitting atop immensely tall chairs and looking down at Lorna and me. I had even imagined them in stately ropes and gripping gavels. When you called yourselves the powers that be, it conjured up a certain distinguished decorum, a judicial air, a precise respect for the rule of law whether it be common or cosmic. It was a bit of a letdown, like finding out that the Supreme Court convened in their jammies. Although, flowing robes were pretty close to pajamas. I stared at the old man. He didn’t come across as dignified at all.
Just the same, I felt on the spot. I said, “I can explain.”
The man closed his eyes and waved dismissively at me to be quiet. He concentrated for all of five seconds, looking like he was either receiving a telepathic transmission or had recently nibbled on something that hadn’t agreed with him.
He said, “I’ve been fully apprised of the circumstances that find you two here.”
Lorna shot me a nervous look. I wanted to reach over and hold her hand but felt foolish. We weren’t kids being taken to task by a teacher or principal. Still, I slid my hand toward her and flexed my fingers slightly in her direction. I just as quickly dropped it back to my side.
She noticed and relaxed a little, appreciating my gesture.
The man hopped off the chair and walked around the desk. The legal pad and pen jumped into the air and floated over toward him. They hung a few inches behind his head, the pen uncapping itself and pressing its point to the paper.
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