Chapter Four

 

 

Everlee (Gideon)

 

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

I flung out curses as I stepped closer to the sheet of rock looming high above us and meeting the edges of the cavern in every direction. How something so large could have been moved into place was beyond explanation. I stood there dumfounded as I took in the expanse of heavy stone blocking our way.

“I take it this isn’t supposed to be here, right?” Star asked, knowing full well what my answer would be.

“Of course not,” I muttered, shaking my head.

Etched into the stone were symbols and letters of a familiar dialect. Star waited as I felt along the wall, sputtering more curses under my breath. I was sweating profusely, drenching what was left of the back of my shirt. It dripped from the ends of my hair as though I’d been soaked by rain.

“Are you all right?” Star asked, her voice full of concern.

I continued to scrutinize the wall with its oddly shaped characters carved into it like an archeological artifact. I looked up toward the roof of the cavern and saw that there was a small opening at the top of the wall. Sweeping my eyes from one end to the other, I realized it was symmetrical in an unnatural way.

“This wall isn’t a natural formation, is it?” Star said.

I slapped the wall in frustration, pressing my forehead to the cold stone. Nothing had gone as planned at all. I couldn’t lose my grip now, not after all the progress we’d made. There had to be something we could do. If I lost my composure now… I didn’t want to think about what could happen. Star was probably thinking this was some pathetic rescue.

“Commander?” Star spoke, snapping me out of my stupor.

“Let me think already,” I grumbled, glaring at her as I pushed off the wall. She pulled her eyes away from my withering look, and I felt bad immediately. “This wall isn’t manmade. It’s made by the Others.”

She stared at me in disbelief. “The Others?”

I looked at her again. My anger had dissipated, and the fatigue had set back in. We were both hungry and dehydrated. I had never planned to hit so many obstacles on the way to the Glass Sky City.

“The way was clear the last time I came through here,” I said. “The wall must’ve been erected within the last four weeks.”

Her eyes grew wider, her jaw dropping. “You mean it wasn’t here at all five weeks ago?”

I shook my head. “No. It’s completely new.”

She tilted her head, studying the wall. “It looks like it’s been here forever.”

“That’s because they use magic to move stone. Their spells are written on the stone. See?” I pointed to the runes carved into the wall. “Each one is a word. A chant to keep the Dark Ones out.” My fingers slid across the indentations of several of the characters.

“You can read their language?” she asked, shocked.

I nodded, facing her. “Yes.”

“How did you learn to read it?” A spark of curiosity grew in her eyes.

“I’ve studied their language for years,” I answered, squirming a bit. The pain in my arm wasn’t the reason why either. There were some things better left unsaid.

“Why would you study them?” She examined the runes with great interest.

Why was I even surprised? Nothing was ever what it was supposed to be in the underground. Star was a bag of tricks herself, more mysterious than I ever could have predicted.

“Because someone has to mediate between us and them. I chose to study their speech so I could interpret. There are a few of us who can interpret, but we always need more people for the job. No one wants to do it. Another thing I volunteered for.”

“Oh,” was all she could say. I didn’t know why I’d expected her to say much more.

“What about the Dark Ones? What are they?”

“The Dark Ones are Others as well, but they’ve been banished from their territories. There’s dozens of them: the Crystal, Obsidian Court, Glass court… just to name a few. The Dark Ones have no loyalties to any of them and thrive on chaos and destruction. You don’t want to run into them alone. They’re extremely dangerous.”

“Why would either of them put a wall here? I thought you said we were heading away from their territories in the deeper caverns.” I could see that I was overwhelming her with information.

“I don’t know. That is the question, isn’t it, Star-girl?” I chuckled but stopped as I caught her acidic glare. “I think the Dark Ones must be moving around, past their domain and into the Crystal Court’s outer realms. If that’s what’s happening, they’re taking precautions and have blocked off access to the Glass Sky City as well.”

Star groaned. “So how are we going to get out of here? We need food and water soon, or we won’t have any energy to continue on. I don’t really want to die of hunger and thirst down here. Not the way I want to go.”

“Me neither, Star-girl.”

She frowned. “Don’t call me Star-girl!”

I didn’t comment, already intently staring back at the wall. I stepped closer to an area on the left side of it, where a small hole had been formed within one of the runes.

“Totem of darkness,” I read aloud. I turned to her and smiled.

“What the heck are you so happy about?” she snapped. She was so hungry and cold; I could forgive her for the outburst. The darkness had a sort of sadness to it, sucking out one’s life force like a leech. I could feel something in the air, something unfamiliar and malevolent. It swirled about us, touching our skin like it wanted a piece of us to study. I shuddered, a bad feeling flooding my guts. That usually meant nothing good was about to happen.

“Give me my totem, Star. I need to try something.”

She cocked an eyebrow at me, probably thinking I was crazy.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“I never said I knew everything about the Others. The Obsidian Court has helped me learn some of the runes too, and I’ve helped them when they were in need. In return, I was given this totem.”

“What? You mean your totem is from one of the darker courts?”

I nodded.

“How can you trust them? You said they were dangerous.”

I sighed, scratching my head and rubbing the sweat away from my face. Now it was my turn to groan in frustration as my patience waned.

“They are dangerous. All the courts and Dark Ones are, but nothing is black and white about any of this, Star. The courts are always at odds, but that doesn’t mean any one of them are exclusively good or bad. The Others tend to blur the lines when it comes to that.” I cleared my throat. “Now, can I have my totem back, please?” I held out my hand and motioned for her to return it.

She scoffed, rolling her eyes as she tugged the key out of her pants pocket. As she held it out to me, I threw her a satisfied grin. Taking it, I limped back to the keyhole I’d found in the wall. She looked horrified at the way I was limping. Maybe she thought she was a goner now that her guide was injured. I straightened, attempting to hide just how much pain I was in.

The fissure we’d used to get to this spot had been too tight to squeeze through. When we’d fallen through the other side, I’d fractured and torn my arm and probably bruised or cracked a hip or leg. I didn’t doubt my pallor and diaphoretic appearance wasn’t hard to miss. The injury felt darn near unbearable.

She stepped toward me as I struggled to get the totem inserted into the keyhole. My fingers shook and missed each time I tried to insert the key.

“Here, give it to me.” She held out her hand, and I glared in her direction. I wasn’t the kind of guy who accepted help, but it was obvious this wasn’t working. I gave up and placed it in her hand.

“I’m not left-handed,” I explained. “I’ve always used my right, even with the prosthetic. Plus, I can’t stop shaking.”

She turned and peered at the tiny slit in the huge slab of stone. The rune’s design disguised it well. She slipped the key in, pressed her lips together tightly, and glanced over at me.

“Everlee… What if it’s a booby trap?”

I suppressed a laugh. “You’re kidding, right? You must have watched a lot of old movies where the characters were always falling into trouble, right?”

“Well, it’s a possibility. Any fiction is always based in reality. You said that yourself.” She rolled her eyes, looking flustered. Maybe I made her nervous with my snarky remarks. She was so naïve, so innocent and unaware of the treacherous world around her. Looking at her, I suddenly felt protective toward her in a way I’d never felt toward anyone.

“Nothing’s going to happen.”

She frowned. “You promise?”

“If it makes you feel better, yeah, sure. I promise.”

“The lack of sincerity concerns me,” she muttered. “You sure inspire confidence in all things.”

“I’m here to serve.” I grinned sheepishly but grimaced in pain from the movement.

“You’re hurting,” she blurted out, reaching out to touch my forehead. It sent zings of energy through me. I was feeling worse with each minute that went by. I pulled away, taking a wobbly step backward.

“The key, Star. We need to get out of here.”

She dropped her arm to her side before focusing on the keyhole once more. I hoped I had enough in me to make it back to the city. If I couldn’t make it, she wouldn’t have a clue about what to do. Going for help through the tunnels by herself? She’d get lost in the caverns for sure. She didn’t appear to have any sense of direction.

She blew out a breath, gripped the key, and pushed it counterclockwise. It resisted at first, but when she placed both hands on it, the key turned. With a screech of metal, it set off a domino effect of gears clicking and metal shifting as though it were rusted from years of unuse, even though it was fairly new.

The floor shook, and small rocks and dust sprayed down on us from above. Star nearly fell and grabbed on to me. We clung to each other as the room filled with the loud roar of shifting rock, filling us with terror.

It was a trap, just as she’d said. Now we were going to die, buried alive.