A Queen To Come

by Frances Ellen

  “It’s done! Go!” Nathan shouted at the others through the rain. His siblings rushed past him and ran down the stairs. Matu was first, clutching the tracker in one hand and a torch in the other. Once all four of them had gone ahead, Nathan followed. As he ran down, he traced his fingers along the earth on both sides. His Band glowed again, and the earth closed above his head, and with every step he went down, the steps behind him were once again replaced with dense earth.

  The steps seemed to go on forever. Deeper and deeper the Asters raced down into the depths of the earth, until finally the light from Matu’s torch no longer pointed downwards, but straight ahead. When Nathan joined them on the tunnel floor, the opening to the steps closed up completely behind him. They only stood in the torchlight for a moment. Lanterns all along the walls flashed on in a burst of magical fire, and suddenly the Asters were standing in the light.

  Nathan looked around. Even those few minutes outside had been enough to completely soak them to the skin. Matu was staring at the tracker in his hands. Sophie peered around him to look at the screen as well.

  “The signal’s strong down here. We don’t seem to be too far away,” Sophie said.

  “You’re welcome,” Sky preened.

  Sophie looked up from the tracker. “Now is not the time, and you know it.”

  Sky huffed, but kept grinning to himself nonetheless.

  “Any idea what district we’re in?” Lian asked, changing the subject.

  Each Underworld territory was divided up into districts, interconnected open caverns that held not only living quarters like houses, mansions and even castles, but also industrial complexes for producing foods and goods. Nathan remembered something about underground rivers being harnessed to provide electricity. The districts were connected to each other by a vast network of tunnels, some of them hundreds of miles long.

  Nathan looked in both directions of the tunnel they were in, but found that both looked completely identical. The tunnels connecting the different districts usually did. This one was about twenty five feet wide and well-lit. Nathan would bet that they were near one of the larger districts.

  “Impossible to tell from here,” Sophie said. “Once we get to a cavern I might be able to tell.”

  “It doesn’t matter where we are,” Matu said impatiently. “Come on.”

  With the tracker raised in front of him, he headed down the tunnel to Nathan’s right at a run. The other Asters followed quickly. Sophie made sure she was running alongside Matu, glancing at the tracker every few steps, though Nathan had no doubt she would rather having the tracker in her own hands. Nathan also thought it was better for her to lead them, since she knew more about this Underworld than any of them, but they both knew that Matu would never relinquish the one thing that connected him to Josephine.

  Sky and Lian followed closely behind Matu and Sophie, while Nathan brought up the rear. The tunnel they ran down stretched out in a straight line in front of them. Nathan didn’t know why he had expected it to look different from the other territories, but it didn’t. The floors were the same black tiles and the walls and ceiling were simply the brown colour of the soil above. The only difference to the other Underworld territories he had been in were the black and red swirling lines painted on the walls.

  They ran on for what seemed like an eternity. Being all the way at the back, Nathan couldn’t tell what was coming up ahead, and whether they were reaching the end of the tunnel.

  No sooner had he thought that than Lian and Sky stopped running, and Nathan skidded to a halt to avoid crashing into them. In front of him, Sophie and Matu stepped forward and to their right, out of sight. Sky and Lian followed. Nathan could hear Matu swear under his breath and Lian gasp. It was only when Sky and Lian moved out of the way, and Nathan could step forward, that he saw where they had arrived.

  The five of them were standing on a small rectangular slab of rock, near the top of an enormous cavern. On the right hand side of the platform was a staircase that led all the way down to the floor a hundred yards below them. Neither the landing they were standing on, nor the stairs leading down, had bannisters.

  Nathan looked around the cavern, silently taking in the remarkable space. There were hundreds of tunnel openings at different heights in the cavern walls. All those above ground level had an open staircase, just like the one that the Asters were standing on, leading down to the ground. A narrow but rushing river cut through the cavern in the middle. On the opposite side of the river to where the Asters were standing, was a tunnel opening different to every other one in the cavern. This tunnel entrance was taller and grander than any of the others. For starters, this one had a double door. It was at least ten feet tall and symbols of fire and lightning, decorated in colours of red, black and silver, had been carved into the walls around it. The two halves of the double door looked like thick tubes of steel woven together like a fishing net.

  Matu started the descent down to the cavern floor, moving more slowly now than he had done in the tunnel. Even in his rush to save Josephine, he was smart enough to know that one wrong step would have him falling headfirst into a hundred yard drop.

  “That’s the entrance to the Sera,” Sophie breathed.

  Nathan had heard of that name before…

  “English please,” Sky said impatiently from behind her.

  “It’s also called the Lock,” Sophie explained as the five of them hurried down the steps. Nathan suddenly realised where they were. He looked up and stared at the Lock’s entrance once again. “It’s the one and only entrance to what was Astaroth’s capital district. No Merger has ever been able to get inside. Only Aiyana has ever been there.”

  In front of Nathan, Lian let out a low whistle.

  The Sera explained why the Mergers in this Underworld had not managed to find out that the abducted Affinites were in this territory all along, and why, all this time, they had never found out who the new King was and how he worked. If the King had spent all of the last twenty-five years in the Sera, biding his time, calculating and planning, no wonder the Asters had been one step behind every time he’d made a move.

  Then something struck Nathan. The entire cavern was completely empty. There was not a single Disciple to be seen; not going in or out of any of the hundreds of tunnels that led to the cavern, nor up or down any of the staircases, nor crossing the river or the cavern floor. And what was even more worrying, the double steel-woven doors were standing wide open. No Disciple guards were posted on the outside. It was as if the King was welcoming them inside a place that no Merger or Aster had ever even been able to fight their way into. As if he had been expecting them all along.

  Once at the bottom of the stairs, the Asters ran along the open, barren ground. Further up and down from them were bridges over the river, but without breaking stride the Asters took the direct route across. The river was narrow enough that none of them had any trouble jumping over it to the other side.

  As they neared the entrance to the Sera, Matu said, “Prepare yourself. We might meet resistance soon.”

  “Doesn’t look like they’re being very resistant so far,” Sky said.

  “No doubt it’s a trap,” Sophie said from up ahead, putting into words what they had all already concluded.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Matu growled. And he was right. It didn’t matter. They needed to find the abducted Affinites and get them out safely before Gayle Mendosa travelled to Saluverus. They had expected this mission to start tomorrow afternoon, after Glacialis’ tracking system had been finished. At least now they had an extra ten hours to work with.

  Nathan flexed his hands. He was ready to reach for one of the broadswords strapped to his back if he needed to. Even though everything seemed quiet, he knew that it wouldn’t last. The King wouldn’t just let them rescue the Affinites without a fight.

  But then why weren’t they being followed? Nathan was dead certain that they had been detected by now. Their mere presence would set off detection sensors all over th
e place. The Asters hadn’t even bothered to use cloaking spells. They wouldn’t be very effective anyway; dark magic clung to the walls and ground like it was a living organism. Aster magic was too stark a contrast to the dark energy moving all around them to go unnoticed.

  And it was that same dark energy that Nathan could practically feel against his skin. It got stronger the closer they got to the doors.

  Nathan cast one last look over his shoulder before following his siblings through the open steel-woven doors and into the Sera. Once again he couldn’t see any Disciple coming through any of the tunnels. It didn’t feel right. None of it did.

  In fact, something felt very, very wrong.

  It had been half an hour since Madeleine Mayne’s phone call, and Axel was the only one still in the Board Room. He was sitting at the corner desk, looking up something on the computer. He had changed the settings on the television: it no longer showed a map of the world, but instead the images of the six Ceders. Rose, Katherine and Madeleine made up the top three images, while Diallo, Cara and Tomas made up the bottom three.

  Despite having moved away from Saluverus eighteen years ago, Tomas and Cara still had their transmitting chips in their upper right arms. The chips still sent in their vitals whenever Axel pulled them up onto the screen. Considering their plan to travel with Gayle to the island tomorrow, Axel considered it essential to have their information right in front of him, too.

  Axel finished typing on the keyboard and the second computer screen lit up, showing the five images of the Asters. Even though the meeting with the Mendosas had been of primary importance, Axel certainly hadn’t forgotten that the Asters were on a mission of their own.

  Eileen Stewart had been smart, though Axel was still adamant to call it reckless. She had put her only child’s life in immense danger to get the Asters and the Small Council the information and the opportunity they needed to get the abducted Affinites out of the South American Underworld. Eileen had known that her daughter would remain alive, at least for a while, but that still didn’t give her the right to risk Josephine’s life. Axel didn’t even know if Josephine had agreed to it. Axel already had a plan to suspend Eileen from her Watcher duties, until he was sure that she would not do something like this again.

  Axel looked at the computer. The Asters were doing fine. If the lighting of an image got darker, or started flickering, it meant that that Aster was in trouble. If the entire picture went dark, it meant that the chip couldn’t pick up any vital signs anymore. If that happened, then the Aster was dead.

  Axel still believed they should’ve given Gayle Mendosa a chip of her own years ago so that her well-being could be monitored as well. Her parents had refused at the time, believing that she would be safe in that town. And she had been. But even they knew they couldn’t take any chances in the next forty-eight hours. Madeleine had been given a small briefcase with everything the Mendosas would need to implant the chip into Gayle’s arm tonight. Just so that if anything were to go wrong in the next few days, the Small Council would know exactly where their future Queen was.

  The Ambassador sighed and stared at the screens. He didn’t know how long he sat there until he decided he needed to stretch his legs. But he had barely made it out of his chair when suddenly two images on the television screen started flickering and an alarm went off.

  Axel jumped and stared up at the screen. It was Cara and Tomas Mendosa. Both of their images were darkening and flickering wildly.

  Then from one moment to the next, their images went completely dark.

  “WHAT?” Madeleine screamed into her phone. She could barely understand the frantic words coming out of the Ambassador’s mouth, except for one thing: Tomas and Cara’s vital signs were gone. Their images were dark.

  “Turn back now! See what is going on NOW!” Axel thundered through the phone.

  They were almost at their car, two miles from the town, and Madeleine wasn’t going to waste any time by running back. She didn’t give the others any sort of warning when she threw down her umbrella, reached out and grabbed Rose and Diallo’s wrists and yelled, “Hold on!”

  Percy and Katherine only had seconds to understand what Madeleine was about to do before she shimmered, but they were already on high alert from her response to Axel’s phone call; they reacted instinctively to her tone and command, and immediately grasped Rose and Diallo’s free hands.

  The five of them re-appeared right where Madeleine and Percy had met the Mendosas only half an hour earlier. “Did the sensors pick anything up?” Madeleine yelled through the rain. It was still hammering down, and Madeleine could barely see her companions through the downpour.

  Rose, Katherine and Diallo all shook their heads.

  “What’s going on?” Percy shouted through the rain.

  “Cara and Tomas are dead!” Madeleine called over her shoulder. She was already heading for the street that led into the town, when suddenly she crashed up against an invisible wall.

  “What the hell,” she growled, and pushed again. There was definitely something blocking her path towards the town, but there was nothing visible in front of her.

  The three Ceders and Percy Kelly came up beside her. “And Gayle?” Percy shouted.

  “Axel doesn’t know! They hadn’t implanted the chip yet!” Madeleine threw her shoulder against the invisible barrier, but it didn’t give an inch. “I can’t get through!”

  “Move!” Diallo came up beside her and pulled his arm back. The Band on his wrist glowed a deep bronze as he used his magic of Strength. His fist landed against something physical, and black lines rippled from where his hand met the invisible wall. The barrier, however, didn’t break.

  “It’s a dark veil! I need more power!”

  The three women immediately knew what to do. They gathered around Diallo. Madeleine stood right behind him and held out her hands to Katherine and Rose, who stood on either side of her. Katherine, to her left, took Madeleine’s left hand with her right, and she placed her own left hand on Diallo’s shoulder. Rose did the exact opposite on Madeleine’s right. The moment the circle was whole, the three women started whispering a spell under their breath; a spell for Diallo to be able to use the power of their magic to make his stronger.

  Madeleine could hardly hear Rose and Katherine’s chanting through the pouring rain. The Bands on their wrists started glowing and Diallo pulled his arm back. With lightning speed he threw it forward. Darkness rippled from where his fist hit the barrier. But this time the darkness didn’t disappear entirely like the first time. Dark cracks in the otherwise invisible shield remained.

  “Again!” Madeleine commanded.

  The three women started chanting again. Their Bands shone brightly in the darkness and through the rain.

  Diallo punched the wall again. Darkness rippled, and the cracks grew larger.

  “Again!” Diallo shouted.

  And they did.

  After Diallo’s third punch there were not only cracks, but large ridges that Madeleine could see through. She didn’t have to say anything as the women beside her started chanting again.

  Madeleine hissed the words through her teeth, trying to control the fear and anger building up inside of her. How had they been so stupid? Though they had no reason to believe that the unknown King of the South American Underworld knew of Gayle’s location, they hadn’t thought of the possibility of a dark entity already being so close. That must have been why the sensors didn’t pick up any Dark magic heading into the town: they were already inside. And they had put up this dark veil after the Mendosas had driven back across the border of the town, locking themselves in, and keeping everyone else out.

  Diallo rallied another punch, and this time the darkness rippled even thicker and further than before. Then, without any warning, the darkness flashed a bright, deep red and vanished.

  Madeleine didn’t wait around. She dug into her magic and flew down the street. The town wasn’t large; she would be in the main street in seconds. At the fir
st T- junction she turned right. At the next small intersection she turned left.

  At that point she was hovering in the main street and couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

  It was completely empty. There were no Disciples anywhere to be seen. Madeleine shot up into the sky and scanned the streets below. There was no movement anywhere. She caught sight of a group of people running, but realised quickly that they were her fellow Ceders and Percy Kelly.

  Madeleine didn’t fly over to meet them. Instead she swooped to the ground and took a sharp turn to the right. She knew where the Mendosas lived: they had a two-story house up against a small hill just off the main street.

  With all her magic of Speed and Flight, Madeleine flew towards the Mendosas’ house. As it loomed up above her, she saw that Tomas and Cara’s car wasn’t there, and that the front door had been completely broken down and was lying face down in the hallway beyond. Without a second’s thought, Madeleine flew inside and flashed through every room of the house. There was no one in the kitchen, or the living-dining space. Madeleine barely registered how the place had been completely trashed. She only cared about one thing: where was Gayle Mendosa?

  Madeleine shot up to the small space under the roof and into the tiny second bedroom up there. Gayle wasn’t there. The bedroom was completely empty. Madeleine didn’t bother going back out through the main door. She noticed that the bedroom window had been smashed, and she flew straight through it. Madeleine gave herself a few seconds to see if there was any way down from that window, and felt relief flood through her momentarily when she spotted the drainpipe.