The Angel of Elydria (The Dawn Mirror Chronicles Book 1) (48 page)

“There’s no time to explain now, we’ve got to find him…and
not a word
to Lord Nestor. We’ll be better off dead if he finds out that the Gaian human is in Elydria. Alert
every
ranger in Hulver to be on the lookout for a group of humans. Phobos and I will search the castle. Make sure it’s on every Sophotri Stone in the city, even the private links. Go now!” Deimos and Bishop Flennig’s footsteps rattled throughout the hall. Penny clung to Hector’s arm as the footsteps drew near, but Deimos ran on, shouting for his brother. The clattering and banging faded.

“What do we do? We’re trapped,” Simon whimpered in the dark.

“Hector, you can teleport us away from here, can’t you? To Argent’s house?” Penny whispered, feeling like something had stuck in her throat and was blocking out most of her breath.

“The margin of failure is too high. We could end up separated, or somewhere awful. It’s extremely dangerous.”

“And getting skewered and served up to Deimos by a group of vicious goblin soldiers
isn’t dangerous?
” Simon garbled.

“Look, just see if we can’t find a way out first. If worst comes to worst, I can try. But I’m telling you it could cost us our lives,” Hector spat, fumbling around in the darkness. There was a small rushing of magic and a little light popped up above their heads with a shower of shining runes from Hector’s palm.

The chamber was circular and satiny purple draping hung from ceiling to floor around it. In the center of the room stood a low table with a very peculiar object on top of it. Penny took a step toward it, somehow enchanted through the alarm of panic that still rang in her chest. She drew nearer to see that the flat, disc-like object was displayed upon a golden stand. The edges of it were made of ornately carved gold, etched with images of angelic figures, staring eyes, and mysterious symbols. In the center of the frame was a smooth piece of clear crystal glass. Curious, Penny reached her quivering hand out, and a faint murmuring stirred somewhere in the room, as if an invisible audience of people had begun speaking in hushed voices all around her. Before her fingers could come in contact with the peculiar object, Hector grabbed her.

“Are you out of your mind, Penelope?” Hector chided, bringing her out of the light stupor. Penny joined in the search for another door, lifting back a few of the draperies, not really expecting to find anything. She had to placate Hector until he got up enough courage to teleport them away. An exasperated sigh came from across the room as Simon stamped his foot.

“There’s nothing here, Hector! We’ve got to get out before they find us!” Simon pleaded, but Hector did not respond. Penny tossed a few cushions away from the wall and chanced a glimpse back at the gold and crystal disc that stood on the table.

Click.

Penny’s head whipped around, searching for the source of the sound. She threw aside the purple curtain she had been digging around, shocked to see a small door in the wall behind it. With a subdued gasp she realized the small clicking noise had been her hand running across a silver doorknob.

“You guys, look!” called Penny as she threw the door open and hurried through.

The first image that met her eyes was of a massive goblin dressed in a regal cape and tunic, sporting a magnificent platinum and diamond crown. There was no doubt in Penny’s mind that this was, in fact, King Yulghrat, but something struck her as odd. The king was sitting propped up on a throne, lifeless. He had made no movement or jerk of surprise when Penny had thrown open the door, and merely sat, still as a statue, his milky eyes staring at nothing.

Across the room, another figure slid out from behind another purple curtain. The figure floated, graceful and silent, feet barely touching the floor as he came into full view beside King Yulghrat’s stiff form. The whole mass of his lithe and sculpted body gleamed with an ethereal light. Penny felt instant fear grip her, starting in the pit of her stomach and twisting slowly, like a great whirlpool of acid.

“Deimos…? What is happening?” the man asked, his voice a musical lilt, more like the sound of wind or a bell’s ring than a voice. Despite its wonderful quality, there was something dangerous and nauseating about it. Penny’s neck prickled and her knees went weak as the sound of it washed over her. Two great white wings unfolded from the man’s back as he turned his face toward the door, and Penny was overcome with the urge to weep in terror as she beheld the flawless visage of the man.

It was him. It was the man from the thunderstorm so many years ago. The beautiful, terrifying man who had haunted her nightmares since childhood; the man whose face had been burned into her memory by a flash of lightning.

No, not a man. An Angel.

The Angel gaped at her, his inhumanly beautiful face betraying shock. His long, flowing hair draped all around his face and body like curtains of white, diamond filament. A disc-like halo of heavy, spinning gold emblazoned with ancient glyphs floated behind his head. His wings flexed, showering the ground with shimmering feathers. Yet even wreathed by the radiance of his sublime beauty, his mannerisms spoke of a quiet malady. Something was weighing upon him―something hindered him.

Penny felt her legs losing strength. Hector yelled out behind her, his voice sounding miles away. She felt his hands grasp her shoulders and Simon pressing against her back. In the last second before the world was wiped away, the Angel’s white-blue eyes widened, the look of recognition in them impaling her heart. Seconds later she was swept from where she stood and hurtled away through vast nothingness.

W
hen Hector, Penny, and Simon materialized in Argent’s house and crashed down with enough force to split the table in two, the entire room was instantly filled with wails of pain and confusion. Annette, who had been sipping tea, shrieked as the wood splintered out. Moments later frenzied footsteps were heard battering up the staircase, and Argent burst into the room and took one long look at the ruins that were once his furniture. He let out a stream of expletives so crude that Annette’s jaw dropped in scandalized horror. Penny disentangled herself from the knot of limbs and pieces of broken wood.

“What―in―the―” seethed Argent, but Hector held up his hand to stop him.

“No time to explain! Everyone gather your things, we’re leaving at once!” Hector ordered as he scurried to the corner, plucking his bag from the ground and tossing Penny’s over to her. She caught it in midair and checked to make sure everything was still inside, her hands shaking.

“W-wait, what happened?!” Annette cried, looking from face to face.

“
My table!”
growled Argent, gesturing to the mess of wood that now littered his floor.

“Erm, as I just said―” Hector warned, “―you may want to gather up a few of your possessions in case they come by and―”

“
Who’s
coming by?”

As if prompted, the Sophotri lit up from the other end of the room.

“Attention, citizens of Hulver! This is an emergency broadcast! Three dangerous humans, two male, one female, are loose in the city. If sighted, they are to be apprehended and turned in to the authorities. If you have any information about these three or their whereabouts, please contact the Bureau of Justice via Sophotri Stone. As a warning it shall be known that any residence or facility discovered to be harboring these humans will be immediately burned to the ground, and any citizen of Hulver who is found to be aiding these humans in any way shall be sentenced to life in prison. Thank you for your time, and keep on the alert,” a stiff voice from the Sophotri Stone announced in Gobblish, then went on to repeat the message in Andronian and Therosian.

“What did you
do!?
What could you
possibly
have done?” Argent hissed, collapsing into a chair and holding his face in his hands for a moment before looking back up. “I need an explanation. Now!”

“We did everything we were supposed to, there was only one problem―Deimos was at the palace. He recognized Simon and now they’re after us,” Hector said, agitated.

“That’s not even the half of it,” Simon added.

“What? What are we going to do?” Annette gasped, her face growing whiter by the moment.

Argent stood up clutching his head and began to pace. “Look, there’s no way they could find out you’re here, could they? I can’t go to prison―not now―not when I’m this close to becoming the richest man in the world…” he pleaded.

“Argent, try to stay calm. Gather up anything that is of vital importance just in case something happens,” Hector urged. Argent took a moment to process this, and then darted up the spiral staircase faster than Penny could blink.

“What’s the plan, Hector?” Simon asked.

Hector shut his eyes for a long, worrying moment. “If we try to escape, someone in the streets will eventually spot us. If we hide out here, we’d be putting Argent at too great a risk. We have to get to Mulgrith somehow and try to find Della. The deep woods will be our best bet for slipping away and perhaps Della will help us get to safety for good. We just have to find some way of getting out of Hulver undetected.”

“Any chance of you being able to teleport again? You seemed to make it here all right,” Penny suggested, and Hector shook his head.

“We were immensely lucky just now. I’ve never been to Mulgrith, which makes it exponentially more perilous. It would almost certainly exhaust both of you, and I’m not sure I’d be able to remain conscious long enough to complete the spell. I’m surprised you can still stand after the last one, Penelope,” Hector nodded in her direction, looking skeptical.

The small silence was broken by another stream of strong curse words from upstairs. All eyes turned toward the spiral staircase as Argent, now wearing a pair of sandals, came charging down with his arms full of his three puppets, several hunks of raw magic, and a tiny green stone pinched between his index finger and thumb.

“Currently there are four goblin rangers flying toward my Atelier on a moth.
WHY?
” Argent snarled.

Penny cringed. “Oh no. When we got lost last week…we asked that goblin ranger for directions. He must’ve―”

Argent moaned, and Penny recognized the dread in his eyes. It was a specific brand of fright that she and her friends had recently grown intimate with―the look of someone who was in jeopardy of losing every cherished thing in their world.

“Hide, you’ve got to hide! Maybe they’ll go away―hurry, into the workshop.” Argent pushed them all backward into his studio as he stuffed the objects in his hands into his wide pockets. He stepped in front of a dusty cupboard, threw open the doors with a clatter, and began tossing everything out in a fury. Clouds of dust billowed into the air as Argent stuffed Hector, Penny, Simon, and then Annette inside and slammed the doors shut again. There was barely enough room to squirm and Penny prayed that the dusty air would not cause her to sneeze. A tiny chink of light shone through the doors and they watched as Argent stuffed some of his belongings into a small side-bag.

The knock came at the door. Argent took a deep breath before striding forward on shaking legs. There was a click of the doorknob and the creak of hinges.

“Can I help you?” Argent could be heard saying in his badly-accented Gobblish. His voice was nonchalant, but even from far away Penny could easily detect the frantic undertone.

“Why, yes you can. May we come in?” a deep goblin voice inquired. Another creak was followed by the telltale shutting of the door. The goblins were inside.

“What seems to be the problem? Does it have something to do with that announcement just now, because I can assure you―”

“Sir, would you mind telling us why this table is broken in half?” one of the goblins asked, interrupting Argent as if he had not heard a word.

“The t-table, yes. Um. Well, the truth is…I don’t know. I was tending my shop just minutes ago when I heard a crash and I ran up here to find out what was going on. It’s true, you can ask the customers downstairs in the store―” Argent blathered, but was cut off again.

“We’ve already spoken to the customers, thank you. The reason we’re here is because there have been reports from local sources that three or more humans are presently staying at this location, is this true?” a different goblin questioned and Argent made a noise to show he was thinking.