Sourcewell Academy

by S T G Hill

  The first attack came when they found two pieces that fit with each other.

  Chapter 34

  "Yes!" Matilda said as Ellie told her to rotate a large slab a bit clockwise.

  As soon as it happened, the ground trembled a little and a pulse of power warped past them through the air.

  A strange, low growl sounded all around them, killing Matilda's triumphant cry on her lips.

  "Don't drop them!" Ellie said when the stones began to slip back down.

  Thorn and Matilda shot their hands forward, holding them up.

  As predicted, they were both pretty much helpless during the task. Just like Jackie had been with the focus pearls.

  "Keep going!" Ellie urged. She pointed down into the chasm, "Thorn, can you grab that one? Matilda..."

  Matilda had already begun bringing up another, one hand held out towards the two pieces already joined together and the other guiding the new one up. "Shut up, ab."

  Thorn's face looked whiter than before, the blue veins at his temples standing out like roads on a map. Shiny sweat slicked his forehead.

  "Can you do this?" Ellie said.

  His lips pressed together and he didn't break his eyes away from the stones, but he nodded.

  Then Miles called back, "Guys! There's something coming!" He held his fists out to his sides and they started glowing again.

  "Hurry!" Casey added. He glanced over at Miles and then copied his stance.

  Ellie no longer cared about heights. She went down on her hands and knees and peered into the chasm, trying to rotate all the stones in her mind to find good fits. "That one!" she pointed.

  "Wow, you are ugly!" Miles said. "It's an Ophidian!"

  Ellie spared a glance back over her shoulder. The snake thing—the Ophidian—rushed towards Casey first, its long tail propelling it forward over the uneven ground.

  The equally long spear it held stabbed up through the air. Casey jerked out of the way and avoided getting impaled.

  "Come mess with me, freak!" Miles said, jumping down from his boulder. His legs glowed before he hit the ground, absorbing the impact.

  The Ophidian had overextended on its stab, and couldn't bring the shaft of the spear down fast enough to protect itself.

  Miles, teeth bared, slammed a magic-enhanced punch into the thing's snakey body. Its forked tongue shot out of its mouth, its shiny eyes rolling in their sockets.

  It hissed, the sound sharp enough that Ellie flinched.

  Then Casey grabbed the spear shaft just below the razor-edged blade. He snarled at the effort of holding it in place.

  "Good kid!" Miles said, pummelling the monster with his fists.

  Ellie turned back and directed Miles and Thorn, trying these two new pieces first one way and then another.

  "Yes!" Miles said.

  He'd beaten the Ophidian until it fell to the ground, its pharaoh's helmet tumbling from its head when it hit the ground.

  "Easy!" Miles held his glowing fists up, ready to strike again, then, "Whoa."

  The Ophidian's body dissolved in a cloud of steam, along with the spear the Casey still clutched.

  Ellie held her arm out, palm straight up, "There, stop!"

  Two more pieces went together.

  This time, two Ophidians attacked. One thrust forward with another spear, while the second wielded a long, curved sword that flashed in the dull light along its edge.

  "You guys need to hurry up!" Miles said, his victory grin wiped from his face. He slapped aside a cut from the sword and slammed a fist into the Ophidian's body.

  Casey did his best to dodge the thrusts from the spear-wielding snakeman.

  "Ellie... what next?" Thorn said. He winced when a droplet of sweat ran down his forehead and into his eye, but didn't move a muscle to wipe it away.

  Ellie turned away from the fight, her whole body shaking while she sized up the slabs still down in the chasm.

  "Those two!" she said, feeling the skin prickle at the back of her neck when she laid eyes on them.

  Behind them, Miles formed the energy surrounding one fist into a sword of his own. He parried another stroke from his foe and then drove his blade into the Ophidian's gut.

  "Die!"

  The snake monster screeched and then boiled away into steam.

  He slashed the one attacking Casey across the back. Its long body went rigid, and it tried to counter attack but Casey once more grabbed the spear and held it in place while Miles dispatched it.

  Miles stood his ground, his shoulders heaving and sweat dripping down his face. "Maybe you guys should wait to put the next ones together..."

  He didn't finish.

  Ellie had been thinking the same thing. That they could wait between joining more slabs together. Even though Thorn's power was fading, it might be best.

  But the Trial didn't allow that.

  "Miles!" Casey shouted a warning.

  Two more Ophidians winked into being almost close enough to strike them with their cruelly curved swords.

  Miles roared, both hands now turned to glowing blades, and charged them.

  "We have no time," Ellie kept her eyes on the blocks and the bridge. "Those two!"

  More slabs went together. Soon enough some of the already joined pieces floating in the game could also be joined.

  Miles and Casey fought off those two Ophidians. Then three appeared.

  Then four.

  "Fall back!" Ellie spared a glance back.

  Casey ducked beneath a blade that scythed less than an inch over his head. He punched the Ophidian in the chest, sending it back. His fists glowed white-hot.

  Miles's entire body seemed to glow. He encased himself in magical armor while swinging his own swords wildly.

  He screamed each time, the screams growing wilder with each kill.

  Thorn and Matilda joined more slabs together.

  Even Matilda looked strained. Ellie could only imagine the effort of holding all these separate pieces in place.

  But they had no other choice.

  Casey began scrambling back towards them, one of the Ophidians slithering along behind him.

  More had appeared in the meantime, most of them ganging up on Miles.

  He parried and blocked their attacks for a time, even getting a few strikes of his own in.

  But there were too many.

  One wielded a massive club. It got in behind him and brought it down on his magic-encased head.

  Ellie didn't just hear the blow, she felt it in her chest.

  Miles went down to one knee.

  "Ellie! What next?" Thorn brought her attention back to the task.

  They had the bridge three-quarters done. It connected to both sides, but had a huge gap in the middle. Longer than they could jump.

  They needed the whole thing in place.

  Matilda floated one of the last remaining slabs up.

  Then she sent it flying through the air.

  Ellie saw it at the last second and fell to the ground just before it could club her. "Casey! Drop!"

  Casey dropped.

  The slab flew over him and connected hard with the pursuing Ophidian. It smashed the creature to steam.

  Ellie shot an accusing glance at Matilda. The other girl, despite the strain of holding up the bridge, winked at her.

  "Saved you."

  They both knew it hadn't been on purpose, and that Matilda wouldn't have minded creaming Ellie, too.

  But they were out of time to quibble.

  "Get it back there!" Ellie pointed where she wanted it, "Thorn, there's only one slab left down there. Can you get it?"

  Thorn looked dead on his feet. He swayed back and forth. Sweat stained his shirt, and those awful dark circles seemed to swallow his eyes.

  At first, she didn't think he heard her. But then he took a deep, shuddering breath and brought the final piece up.

  It took them a few moments to piece them together and complete the bridge.

  Another shock of magic ran out from the
chasm, shaking the rocky plain around them and making a sound like distant, rumbling thunder.

  "Let's go!" Ellie called back to the defenders, "Miles!"

  She turned around to call him back, but it was too late.

  Half a dozen Ophidians surrounded him, slashing and bashing and stabbing.

  He blocked some of the attacks, and the magical sheath of armor around his body deflected some. But it flickered like a guttering candle.

  He roared one last time, driving one bladed fist deep into the belly of a sword-wielding snake man that disappeared in steam before he could even pull back.

  "We need to help him!" Ellie took a step towards the fight.

  "Forget him," Matilda replied. "We need to cross now. I can't hold this much longer and I'm not waiting."

  The monsters made the decision for them.

  More of them appeared, an easy dozen surrounding him. He flailed wildly until a club caught him on the back of the head.

  His armor charm failed, flickering out.

  For just a split moment, Ellie met his eyes and saw only terror in them. Then the Ophidians closed ranks and she didn't see him again.

  "No!" Casey cried out. He started rushing to help, but Ellie snatched him by the wrist.

  "We have to cross!" Ellie said. "Thorn, let's go!"

  "Me first!" Matilda said, pushing in front of them.

  She started out down the bridge. It was narrow, forcing them single file.

  Thorn controlled the closest half of the span. The slabs creaked and shook beneath them, and when Ellie looked back she saw that Thorn stumbled his way behind them, almost going over the edge.

  "Thorn!" Ellie noticed the way he stumbled and lurched.

  Casey was between them, he turned and started back but Ellie stopped him, "No, I'll help him. You go ahead and make sure she holds the bridge."

  They squeezed past each other and Ellie went to Thorn, grabbing one of his arms and taking it across her shoulders.

  The bridge was so narrow that their outer feet hung a little over the edge.

  "Thanks," he kept his eyes on his feet and on the bridge.

  "Sure. Just don't release the slabs yet," she said.

  They shuffled forward slowly.

  Behind them, the Ophidians approached the bridge.

  Ellie didn't dare try and call her power again. If it made her woozy, one small misstep would send them both over the edge.

  Thorn wasn't exactly a lightweight, either. She gritted her teeth and struggled beneath his arm when he leaned against her.

  The Ophidians crowded the other end of the bridge for a moment, then one slithered forward, its shiny eyes intent on its prey.

  They reached the halfway point and Thorn paused.

  "Just a second," he said.

  He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, then released the magic that held his side of the bridge up.

  The Ophidian in pursuit screeched as it plunged into the depths of the chasm. The bit slabs of stone shattered against the bottom, spraying dust high into the air.

  Without that magical weight on him, they moved forward more quickly.

  Casey and Matilda had almost reached the other side.

  "I guess that prize is mine," Matilda said, turning around when she got to the end. "See you guys never."

  Then she let go of the rest of the bridge.

  The world dropped out from beneath Ellie. Her stomach seemed to float. A raw panic flashed through her.

  It's not supposed to end this way, she thought.

  Then her feet found solid footing again.

  The half-bridge held beneath her, though a few of slabs had gone askew.

  She and Thorn looked forward.

  "Let me go!" Matilda said.

  Casey, his hands glowing, had grabbed her and hauled her back out onto the bridge. She had used her magic at the last second to hold it up so that she wouldn't follow them down into the abyss.

  "Sure. When Thorn and Ellie get across," he said.

  "You're such a little idiot!" Matilda tugged at his grip but couldn’t break it.

  Ellie and Thorn hurried forward as fast as they could.

  Ellie's body thrummed with the need to get on solid ground again.

  And they almost made it.

  But then Thorn tripped over one of the uneven stone slabs and they both pitched forward.

  "Let me go or they both drop," Matilda said.

  Ellie hung onto one protruding edge of this final slab, her legs windmilling uselessly through the air below her.

  Casey had grabbed Thorn by the wrist, using his kinetic magic to hold Thorn up.

  "I'm slipping..." Ellie said.

  She'd never been able to do a single pull up no matter how much the gym teachers screamed at her. And she was already exhausted, inside and out, from the tar pit ordeal.

  Her fingers gripped the little protrusion of rough stone hard, but already her wrists trembled.

  "Just let me go!" Matilda snapped again.

  "Shut up!" Casey shot back.

  He looked from Thorn to Ellie. Ellie scrambled at the slab, trying to find some spot to put her feet so she could push herself up. Or at the very least take some weight from her hands.

  Her feet found nothing.

  "I'm sorry," Casey said to her.

  "Wait!" Ellie said.

  Casey didn't. He sucked in a breath and then used his power to throw Thorn over to the ground. Thorn hit the dirt with a thud and rolled a couple times, arms splaying out.

  Then he gave Matilda a hard shove and sent her over the edge.

  Matilda screamed. But then she also reached up and snagged Casey by the ankle.

  Right away, the slab began to slip back down.

  Casey put one glowing hand on the lip of the slab as he slipped over and made it tilt over to the side.

  Just enough to propel Ellie upwards. She used the momentum to jerk over to the side, far enough to latch onto the chasm wall.

  Then the slab tumbled down into the chasm, taking Casey and Matilda with it.

  This time, Ellie could use her feet. She scrabbled up and over the lip of the chasm. Still on her stomach, she shifted around so she could look over the edge.

  "Casey!" she screamed, hoping that maybe he had done the same thing and that she'd see him clinging to the wall.

  He wasn't.

  Unable to help herself, she looked down. She didn't want to see their broken bodies on the floor, but she needed to know.

  Maybe he survived it, she kept telling herself, Maybe he landed on top of that stupid cow and she broke his fall.

  But it was too dark to make anything or anyone out down there. Besides, Jackie had disappeared. She guessed that Matilda and Casey had, too.

  Miles better be right about no one dying here, she thought.

  Then she rolled over onto her back and squeezed her eyes shut. She pushed her fists against her closed eyelids hard enough to see bursts of color on the back of her lids.

  Then she screamed. She screamed until her lungs ached.

  This was all too much. She didn't want to do this. She didn't want to be there. She wanted to go back to before all this had started.

  Back to Mr. Fichtner's apartment and her tiny bed in his den.

  "Ellie..."

  She pulled her fists from her eyes. Then she blinked against the blotches of color staining her vision.

  Her chest hurt from screaming.

  "Ellie," Thorn said.

  He'd come to and had crawled over to her. The dark circles remained around his eyes, and his skin looked waxy.

  "What?" she pushed the heels of her hands against her eyelids until bruised colors appeared in the blackness.

  She opened her eyes and blinked against the sudden blurriness.

  He pointed back behind himself, into the new vastness of this side of the chasm. "Don't you see it?"

  She pushed herself up into a sitting position and squinted. She saw it.

  "The door," she swallowed hard. The way
out.

  It looked like the one they'd entered to start the Trials. A broad doorway flanked by two columns. It just stood there in the middle of the field.

  "I just want out of all this."

  "Then let's finish this," Thorn said. "The only ways out are to finish the trial or to... not finish the trial." He glanced towards the chasm when he said that.

  Ellie ran her hands through her hair, which felt filthy and coarse now. How long have we been here, anyway?

  "Let's go, then," she sat up.

  They helped each other up. Casey had saved them both, yes. But when he threw Thorn either the throw or the landing hurt him. Thorn limped forward while clutching at his shoulder.

  Ellie felt pretty banged up, too. But they reached the door and walked into it.

  It was the same as the last place, that weird rest stop. A banquet of food that made Ellie's stomach growl. Only two cots, this time.

  "Look," Thorn said, nodding towards the opposite wall.

  Ellie followed his nod.

  There were three words etched into the tan sandstone. Etched deep and filled with some red substance that reminded Ellie of old, dry blood.

  THE BEAST AWAITS

  Chapter 35

  Ellie and Thorn just stared at the wall. A strange, cold sensation pooled in the pit of Ellie's stomach.

  "The beast?" she said.

  Thorn sat down on the cot closest to the far wall. He could barely hold his head up. "I was wondering if we were going to face it as part of the Trial."

  "It? What is it? You know?" she turned to face him, arms crossed tight across her chest.

  He nodded. Despite his exhaustion, he even managed to raise a questioning eyebrow at her, "Really? You never learned about the Labyrinth in school? Movies? Games? Books?"

  Ellie shrugged, "Nope. I was more concerned with stuff like wondering if I was going to get a decent meal, or if my latest set of foster parents thought they could teach me a lesson if they left me without a blanket overnight in a freezing room."

  There had been a few times when she caught movies, like when she snuck into the theater, and she'd wanted to read more.

  If we make it out of here, I'm going to read more. I'll just get Sybil to recommend stuff for me.

  Thorn didn't reply. Ellie had turned to look at those foreboding words on the wall.