‘I should have gone,’ said
Tallon, ‘I’m supposed to be my sister’s protector, how can I
protect her when I am never with her, and I don’t trust Thomas, he
is not a warrior.’
‘He may not be a warrior,’ said
Gilster, ‘but he has feelings for Elkeira, I don’t believe he would
intentionally put your sister at risk.’
‘Sometimes,’ said Max, ‘a
person needs to be put in a situation before he can show his true
worth, I believe this may be one of those times for Thomas.’
‘That’s what I’m worried
about,’ said Tallon, ‘what if he cannot cope with the situation, my
sister’s life may be in danger.’
Gilster smiled, ‘your sister is
a very capable young woman, I’m sure she can take care of herself.’
Tallon grunted.
Max walked over to where Haven
was laying on the mattress, she squatted down next to him and
gently stoked his face.
‘Hopefully we will all have
access to the energy again soon,’ she said softly.
‘So,’ she said to Gilster, ‘who
do you think is the Chosen, you or Haven. I still can’t believe
Daria risked so much and then lost her life acting as a decoy for
Minerva and Apollo, I think it was wicked of them to use her like
that, she never once let on she wasn’t the Chosen.’
‘I have no idea which of us is
the Chosen,’ said Gilster, the anger in his voice becoming apparent
as he continued, ‘I just want to get the last portal open so the
Uthians can leave and we can all be left in peace.’
‘Who are these “Uthians” you
talk about,’ said Tallon, we were always led to believe Ragnar and
Isis were gods who protected us, it seems now this is not the
case.’
‘No, it is not,’ snapped
Gilster uncharacteristically, ‘they are just beings that became
bored with their lives and decided to use all of us in some giant
experiment and now they’ve become bored again and want us to help
them move on. Unfortunately for us, if we don’t help them we will
all die and our worlds will be destroyed.’
Tallon whistled through his
teeth. ‘This is a lot to take in,’ he said, ‘I’m finding it hard to
believe what I have always thought was the truth is actually all
lies.’
‘Believe it,’ said Gilster, ‘I
have no reason to lie to you.’
Thomas stopped suddenly causing
Elkeira to bump into the back of him.
‘What is it,’ she whispered,
‘have you heard something?’ Thomas stood in front of a small wooden
door half hidden in the dark behind a wooden beam holding up the
roof.
‘It’s here,’ he said quietly,
‘let me listen, I need to find out if anyone is on the other side
before I open it.’ They both stood still holding their breath for
what seemed like an eternity, Thomas with his ear close to the
door.
‘Well?’ said Elkeira growing
impatient.
‘I think it might be safe to
open the door,’ whispered Thomas, ‘but let me do it, I’ll only open
it a crack, stand back and be ready to run if I say so.’
‘We can’t run,’ hissed Elkeira,
‘the device must be destroyed.’ She took an arrow from her quiver
and nocked it. ‘If anyone is there move out of my way so I can kill
them.’
‘Don’t be stupid,’ hissed
Thomas, ‘how can you kill a grown man who in all likelihood will be
armed with a sword or a gun?’
Elkeira did not like being
called stupid. ‘Well, if anyone is there we must kill them, we can
do this Thomas,’ she said, ‘we have to.’
Thomas opened the door a crack,
he could see most of the area, it was deserted, he pushed the door
open slowly, looking for anything that might mean someone was
hiding -- nothing. He opened the door fully, the place was
empty.
‘See anything,’ asked Elkeira
from behind him.
‘No,’ said Thomas, ‘I think we
might be in luck.’ He stepped cautiously out, holding up his hand
to Elkeira, warning her not to leave the tunnel just yet. When he
was sure it was safe he beckoned for Elkeira to join him. She step
cautiously out of the tunnel, her bow still nocked, turning this
way and that she checked the area. ‘Put that down,’ said Thomas,
‘the last thing I want is an arrow in the back because you thought
you saw something.’
Elkeira released the tension on
the bow string but kept her arrow held firmly in place. ‘I have
hunted much bigger prey than you,’ she said, ‘and none of them was
killed by accident.’
Thomas apologised, ‘I’m sorry,’
he said, ‘I’m just a little jumpy.’
‘Where is the room,’ asked
Elkeira.
‘Over here,’ said Thomas
walking towards a door, ‘this is the only room on this floor so
there can be no doubt.’ Again, he cautiously opened the door while
Elkeira stood watch, her back to him, in case anyone should come
from behind. ‘Look at this, I don’t believe it, it’s here, I’ve
never seen anything like it before.’
Curiosity getting the better of
her, Elkeira turned and glanced over Thomas’ shoulder. The room was
quite large, and empty apart from a strange looking device sitting
on a pedestal in the middle of the floor.
‘Look,’ said Elkeira pointing
down, ‘that’s the metal floor that Max told us about, we are not to
touch it or we will die.’
They stood in the doorway
studying the device from a distance; it was a small metallic box,
about six inches square with three wires coming out of the top,
which in turn were attached to knobs on the pedestal. Occasionally
a light would blink on the top, apart from that nothing moved or
made a sound.
‘So, what do we do now?’ said
Thomas.
‘We destroyed it, that’s what
we do,’ said Elkeira, nocking an arrow and aiming at the device.
She let go the arrow which hit the device dead centre; it moved
only a fraction of an inch. ‘I don’t think I will have enough
arrows to do the job,’ said Elkeira nocking another one.
‘Wait,’ said Thomas, his hand
pushing down the bow, ‘I have an idea.’ He walked back to the
secret opening and stepped inside. He filled his pockets with
broken masonry and chunks of rubble.
‘What do you intend to do with
those,’ said Elkeira, ‘throw them?’
‘In a manner of speaking, yes,
that’s exactly what I’m going to do.’
He walked back to the room
removing a sling-shot from his coat. Placing a piece of rock in the
sling he twirled it around his head, which was difficult to do in
the confined space of the hallway. Aiming through the door way he
released the shot, it stuck the metallic box with a loud clang and
moved it two inches closer to the edge of the pedestal.
Unfortunately the clang was not the only sound to be heard, the
movement of the device had tripped an alarm, the klaxon sound
echoing through the keep.
Thomas panicked, ‘we have to
hide,’ he yelled over the alarm, the guards will be here soon. He
turned to run, Elkeira grabbed his arm.
‘No Thomas, we have to finish
this, you can do it, I know you can.’
‘But the guards,’ he said.
‘Leave the guards to me,’ said
Elkeira, ‘just don’t take too long, I only have so many
arrows.’
She ran to the top of the
spiral staircase leaving Thomas to finish the job. He was shaking
so much his next shot missed entirely, knocking a chunk out of the
far wall. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, ‘you can do
this, you must do this,’ he thought. Opening his eyes he again took
aim, another hit, moving the box closer still to the edge.
Elkeira reached the spiral
staircase, luckily it was only wide enough for one guard at a time
to navigate. She smiled, ‘like shooting rats in a barrel,’ she
thought. One guard came racing around the bend only to be shot in
the chest and fall back onto other guards coming behind. Next, a
head poked around the bend causing Elkeira’s bow arm to twitch.
‘No,’ she cautioned herself, ‘don’t waste your arrows, wait until
they show themselves.’ The next one came more cautiously and was
carrying a shield, she shot him in the leg; he fell, taking a few
guards with him back down the stairs.
‘Hurry up Thomas, we have to
leave,’ she yelled back over her shoulder.
‘This one should do it,’
thought Thomas twirling his sling-shot. Clang, bullseye. The box
moved, one side hanging precariously over the edge of the pedestal,
it teetered back and forth, deciding whether to fall or not.
Slowly, so very slowly it reached the point of no return and fell
over the edge pulling out the three wires as it went; crashing to
the ground and smashing open. The machine powered down but the
alarm didn’t stop.
‘I did it,’ smiled Thomas, ‘I
can’t believe it, it worked.’ His sense of achievement was cut
short by a scream. ‘Elkeira . . . .’ He ran down the hallway and
saw Elkeira struggling with a huge guard, he held one arm tightly
and was trying to grab her other one as she slashed at him with a
small dagger. Thomas felt in his pocket, he had one piece of
masonry left. ‘I must make this count,’ he thought, ‘I won’t get
another chance.’ He placed it in his sling-shot and twirled it
around his head, releasing it at maximum velocity, it hit the guard
right between the eyes, who went limp and hit the floor with a
sickening thud. Elkeira leapt free and ran screaming towards
Thomas.
‘RUN, they are coming.’ Thomas
turned and ran for the end of the hallway, Elkeira was right behind
him. They reached the end and turned right, ten seconds later the
guards were there, they turned right only to be greeted with a
blank wall, Thomas and Elkeira had vanished.
Down in Thomas’ room the
friends waited anxiously for any sign of improvement in Haven, when
none came they began to doubt they had done the right thing sending
Elkeira and Thomas.
‘I told you it should have been
me,’ said Tallon, ‘if anything has happened to my sister . . . ,’
he trailed off not willing to express what might happen.
‘Give them time,’ said Gilster,
‘they’ve only been gone an hour, I’m sure they’re both . . .’ An
alarm cut him off mid sentence. ‘See, I told you,’ he smiled,
‘they’ve done it, you just have to have a little faith.’
‘How do you know they’ve done
it,’ snapped Tallon, ‘maybe that alarm is because they’ve been seen
and it’s calling guards to capture them.’
‘No, I don’t think that’s it,’
said Max, who was sitting near Haven, ‘look.’ Both men turned to
see Haven staring at them with bleary eyes.
‘What happened,’ he said,
rubbing his eyes and trying to sit up.
Max put a hand on his chest and
pushed him back down, ‘not so fast, you’ve been gone a long time,
just take it slow.’
‘Where am I,’ said Haven
looking around, ‘I don’t know this place, the last thing I remember
is eating a meal with Benitoff and being shown a room to sleep in,
then . . . nothing.’
‘I’m sorry but we don’t have
time to explain it all yet, we need to get moving,’ said Max, ‘can
you stand?’
‘I think so, but I may need a
little help, I’m feeling a bit lightheaded.’
Haven struggled to his feet
with the help of Max and stood, swaying slightly. With Haven
leaning heavily on her shoulder, Max walked him towards the
door.
‘Grab all the weapons you can,’
she said to Tallon and Gilster as she reached the door, ‘we’re
leaving.’ Gilster and Tallon did as she asked and followed behind.
The alarm had been turned off saving their ears, but it was dark in
the corridor and Max had to struggle to get Haven moving. Finally
they reached the door to the outside. ‘Before we leave,’ said Max,
‘be ready for anything, we’ll make a run for the portcullis and
hope Elkeira and Thomas are already there.’
‘Thomas? Who’s Thomas,’ mumbled
Haven.
‘Later,’ said Max, ‘are we
ready? Haven, are you ready to run?’
‘As ready as I’ll ever be,’ he
said.
‘Good.’ Max kicked the door
open and ran in the direction of the portcullis dragging Haven
along with her. There were no guards to be seen which was strange
considering there should be at least some guards walking the walls,
but they made it to the portcullis without incident. ‘Quick,’ said
Max turning to Tallon, ‘turn the wheel and open the gate.’
‘Where’s Elkeira,’ said Tallon
looking around, ‘I can’t see her, shouldn’t we wait.’
‘There’s no time,’ said Max,
‘hopefully her and Thomas will be here soon, but we need the gate
open now.’ Tallon began to turn the giant wooden wheel that opened
the portcullis while Gilster kept watch for any guards that might
hear. The wheel turned slowly, much too slowly for Max who was
beginning to worry they may be caught before it was open, the last
thing she wanted to do was have to fight a horde of guards.
Gilster yelled, ‘here comes
Elkeira and Thomas.’
When Tallon heard his sister
was safe it gave him the extra strength he need, straining with all
his might he pulled the wheel around, slowly the gate rose, picking
up speed when Haven joined in, pushing the wheel from the other
side. Elkeira and Thomas reached the gate, just as Tallon locked it
off, stopping it from lowering again.
‘Crawl under the gate,’ said
Max, ‘we haven’t time to waste.’
‘STOP,’ roared a voice from the
door of the keep. Fischer was standing on the steps, the gun in his
hand raised in their direction. They all turned.
‘Thomas . . . my son, why are
you helping the enemy?’
‘Son?’ said Elkeira, ‘why
didn’t you tell me, I thought we were friends.’
‘I liked you,’ he said sadly,
‘I didn’t want you to hate me if you found out.’
‘Walk towards me son,’ said
Fischer, staring at Thomas, ‘you don’t want to be a part of this,
you’ve always been a coward, don’t be a traitor too.’
Elkeira had nocked an arrow and
was very slowly raising her bow.
‘I’m not a coward father,’ said
Thomas, his voice catching, ‘and it’s you who are the traitor not
me.’ Fischers eyes blazed with anger.