by J. A. Comley
The silence grew heavy as it stretched on almost unbearably. Gaby's hands were tense on Starla's shoulders. All pairs of violet eyes were narrowed at her as they waited for an alarm to sound, or for the sounds of approaching enemies, or worse.
Slowly, the Ever-Burning Tree seemed to split in half as it swung inwards, silently. Starla released a breath she had not known she was holding. She let her palm fall back to her side.
“That was stupid,” Gaby snarled in Starla's ear as they stepped together over the threshold. “If he gets that Star, it is all over.”
Starla sighed and looked at Gaby. She knew words weren't necessary. All her impatience was evident in her face.
The others followed silently behind, looking out down the long corridor that stretched out before the group. The black walls seemed to emanate their own greyish light.
Fey groaned. Starla turned in time to see the gates seal noiselessly behind them. This side was perfectly smooth, black volcanic glass. Not a mark or symbol, anywhere. In fact, if she hadn't just stepped through them, Starla would have thought this was simply a wall.
“How will we get out?” Biki asked, her big, brown eye shining with fear.
“Starla's amulet,” Lua reassured Biki softly. “Once it's united, it should be able to accomplish all that Starla commands. And if half of it brought her across galaxies, then all of it can certainly get us to the City.”
“Hush, now,” Alli cautioned, as they began making their way down the corridor.
Starla grasped the Star through her tunic. She trusted it to get them out of here and maybe even to protect them if Kyron discovered them, but she feared her own lack of understanding. Unlike other Soreiaphin, she had not been raised and trained in the Dome of Stars. She didn't know how to use her powers for anything except communication. And there was still the problem of how to activate it. What would the cost for her powers be?
Hopefully, Kyron's mind is still elsewhere, planning his battle, Starla thought, sighing and continuing along the flat corridor.
“Your mantles,” Fey said, extending her hand, “they are of no use in here.”
Starla shrugged out of her mantle and watched as Fey folded them all again and again, until they were tiny, flat squares no bigger than Starla's palm.
The Guardians' bright clothes and markings were the only things that stopped them from being able to blend into the black stone walls around them. Their white hair shone like moonlight in the dim space.
“Where is Kyron?” Gaby asked Heny, her voice hushed.
Heny's head and paws vanished into his rock body. If he sat like that in a shadowed corner, no one would even realise he was there.
“Not in the fortress.” Heny's head emerged.
“Good. Keep looking out for him.”
Heny nodded, slowly.
Starla was itching to race ahead but she knew that getting caught would help no one.
“Litzie,” Fey called, and the cargon sprang lithely to her side. Fey knelt and quickly tucked their mantles into a pouch around Litzie's neck.
Starla managed to smile at the cargon as it came up beside her. Its sienna fur was soft as silk as it rubbed once against Starla's leg, careful to keep its brick-red spikes at a distance.
“It'll be all right,” Melor cooed in his little voice from where he sat on Litzie's back.
“Thanks,” Starla murmured as the cargon slunk back to Rya's side. Loodeks had the ability to read emotions in the creatures around them. He had, no doubt, felt Starla's tension.
“Hold up a minute. I think we're far enough in,” Fey called. Extending her hands, she created a small, glowing disc out of a form of her earth element. Starla thought it looked a little like a slice of agate, with its internal rings. This, she laid lightly over Litzie's third eye.
“Seems mostly empty,” Litzie said after a pause, “but I can only see two floors up and I can't see below us, at all. There is a group of grobblers just beyond the first bend. The corridor doesn't seem to split.”
Good, Starla thought, as the disc vanished and they started forward again. Empty is good.
Quickly and silently the group moved down the corridor, stopping as they reached the sharp bend Litzie had seen.
They all turned to Fey. Silently, Fey knelt and pressed her palms to the ground. When she rose, she held up nine fingers. Nine grobblers beyond the bend.
Rya winked at Starla and raised her hands in the usual fashion, palms inward.
She flashed her palms outward. A bright light flashed from around the corner.
Starla heard the grobblers' confused and pained curses and muttered oaths as they collided with one another.
“She blinded them,” Fey murmured as Gaby took Rya's forward position.
Gaby intoned a spell, palms flipping outwards.
Vines shot around the corner and, after a few muffled cries of surprise, silence fell.
Biki turned invisible and poked her head around the corner.
“All done,” she confirmed.
“Any reinforcements coming?” Alli asked, watching Fey use her agate disc to amplify Litzie's ability to see through walls.
“None,” Litzie confirmed. “No one seems to have heard.”
Starla rounded the corner, amazed. All nine grobblers were bound and gagged and shoved into a small recess in the wall. Their blinded eyes swept back and forth fearfully as they heard and smelled the group. Gaby pressed a finger to her lips, motioning Starla to be silent and hurry past. They were at a sharp left right turn, where the ground went steeply upwards. Biki turned invisible than peeked around the corner. Making one paw visible, she indicated that she needed to go a little bit higher. Before anyone could begin to worry, she was back.
“Five grobblers along the slope,” she whispered, “and one drodemion.”
Lua took a deep breath and a look of concentration came over her face as she slowly, imperceptibly, took control of the air surrounding their enemies.
Alli and Rya stood ready behind her. Starla stepped back against the other wall to wait.
Without warning, a howling wind tore through the corridor. Grobblers cursed as they were all tumbled down the slope, landing in a heavy heap, twisted around the drodemion's feet. Before their fallen foes could react or even notice their captors, Alli had sent a wave of water over the grobblers, drowning them, and Rya had sent blue flames to envelop the drodemion.
Starla stared in shock as Alli released the now-dead grobblers to the ground. She shuddered. She knew that letting them live would only mean letting them kill innocent people when Kyron attacked, but death was still not something she could witness unaffected.
“I thought they'd just change into keplas or some other water creature,” she whispered.
“Grobblers can't transform in water. It causes them to faint,” Alli commented, already moving up the slope. “They didn't feel anything,” she added, catching Starla's eye.
Starla nodded, edging past the writhing and groaning ball of blue flame on the ground.
“I can't kill it,” Rya murmured, frustrated. “He or she had no choice. I can't just … it is unconscious, though,” she added as it stopped moving.
Again, Starla nodded mutely. Of course, she knew from Larkel's memories how much it cost to kill someone who was innocent. Her own sister, whom she had never met, had died because of the same Curse.
After rounding their fifth corner, the group entered a circular room with six possible exits.
Five of the ways were sealed with doors, a different symbol carved on each. The last was merely a pointed archway, a continuation of this corridor.
“Flora,” Gaby murmured, pointing at the symbol on a door to the right.
“Earth,” Fey said, staring at one on the left.
“I can't see through them,” Litzie said, pawing the ground in frustration.
Starla saw another debate brewing.
“I think we should split up,” she said pre-emptively, her voice firm, cutting off any other options.
“No,” Gaby responded, her voice just as firm, crossing her arms stubbornly. “This is clearly a trap.”
“And because you know that, you'll be prepared. We need to find them, Gaby,” Starla pleaded. “We don't have time to search each way, individually. This place is enormous!”
“And if we get attacked?” Gaby wasn't budging. “They'll overpower us. Then, what of Galatia's fate?”
Starla drew a deep breath. “Here's the plan. We split up. Enter your ways one at a time. You can feel each other, right? So you'd know if one of you were being attacked.” She held up a hand, forestalling Gaby. “Our companions,” she gave Flek a wink and he perked his ears up importantly, “will remain some way behind us, hidden. If we get caught, they are to run, to get to the City. Someone has to let them know we failed,” she added as the animals all looked ready to argue. “You can use the Darkness Mantles and Melor can burrow you all out, if need be.”
Starla surprised herself by the calm with which she discussed their potential deaths.
Fey grinned and shook her head, ponytail swaying. “Ezira was right, you are on a suicide mission.” She heaved a sigh. “But you are also right. I'm in,” she said, moving to stand before her door, Melor looking unhappy as he hopped off her shoulder.
“I still don't like this,” Gaby muttered but stood before her door, all the same.
“Galatia needs us, Gaby. We don't have time or he will win this war while we stumble about lost in his fortress,” Starla said firmly, still moving towards the archway.
Starla narrowed her eyes at the symbols. “Let me guess, fire, water and air?” she said, her voice flat.
“Yes,” Rya whispered.
“This has been planned,” Alli said. “This is a trap for you, Starla. Kyron must have sensed us entering his realm, or your using the orb.”
“Not necessarily,” Lua said, trying, as usual to see the positive side. “Maybe, because he has the Stones, he figured we'd come and get them. Every time we use our powers, his spell is triggered and a trap for us is set.”
“I think she's right,” Starla said, nodding briskly, taking any option that would stop them from delaying getting to Larkel and the others. “I have no reason to be here. As far as Kyron knows, I shouldn't know whom he holds prisoner here. No one should. It is far more likely that the trap is for you.”
Rya looked back the way they had come, her eyes pained. “Fey, Gaby?”
Starla bit her lip. “There is still a possibility that one of those ways leads to the cavern I saw.”
They all looked at her, waiting for her verdict. Starla sighed, uncomfortable with the heavy responsibility they had placed on her shoulders. Whatever the cost, they had to at least try and save the people here. They had to try to unite the amulet. Then would come her turn to pay the price her magic would demand. She suppressed a twinge of fear.
“We split up,” Starla finally said, again. “But see if, after the way is opened, you could take another passage. You know, swap ways. That way, if the trap is element specific, it won't work on you.”
Lua needed no more encouragement. She stepped up to her door and touched the mark. It swung open.
Alli did the same, then moved to Lua's door and took a step into the dark passage beyond.
“I can enter,” she stated, coming back out.
Rya opened her door for Lua, then went to stand by Alli's. Fey and Gaby swapped wordlessly behind them.
“Starla are you sure?” Rya asked, her eyes violet flame. “It could all be for you. To separate us from you.”
“I know, I know,” Starla breathed. She hardened her voice with resolve. “But we have no choice, Rya. If we don't try, then he wins. And,” she had to pause to steady her voice again, “if he already knows that we are here, do you really think we'd make it back out if we ran now?”
Rya shut her eyes and clenched her jaw, but nodded, conceding the point.
“We'll come back to you as soon as we're sure our ways are no more than traps,” Rya said firmly.
“Okay,” Starla said, stepping beyond the arch of her passage, Flek with her.
A barrier flashed to life in front of her.
“Starla!” Rya cried, shooting balls of fire at the invisible wall.
Lua was trying to look every way at once, as if convinced Kyron was about to appear through one of the walls.
“Stop!” Starla said, her eyes pleading as the hail of spells ended abruptly, followed by several muttered oaths.
“You still think that this trap was for us?” Rya hissed, pacing before the barrier.
“Rya,” Alli murmured, laying a hand on her friends arm.
“Look, whatever his plan is doesn't matter,” Starla said. “We were committed the moment we stepped through his gates. We can only carry on. You can't break through this barrier, so try your passages. One might join this one higher up, or lead to the cavern.”
“Oh come on, Starla!” Rya said, throwing her hands in the air. “He. Was. Expecting. Us.” She said each word separately.
“So it seems,” Starla admitted, forcing her voice to remain level and not reveal the fear that was writhing in her belly. Would he kill Larkel before she could reach him? “But now you are going to do something he doesn't expect. You are going to do what we said, swap corridors.”
“Okay,” Lua mumbled, still shooting nervous glances around the passage. “Just … stay safe.”
Lua drifted into Rya's passage.
“I will go only if you promise to stay put, Starla,” Gaby said, her voice seething. Behind her, Rya nodded emphatically, her short hair shining with each jerk.
“Please, Starla,” Alli interjected, seeing the worry in Starla's eyes and the stubborn set to her lips. “You can help no one if Kyron catches you.”
“If you let him get the amulet, it is all over,” Rya added, violet eyes hard as amethysts.
Starla managed a nod. “But I can't just stand here.”
Rya growled.
“Rya please, look, anyone coming from any of these passages would see me straight away.” Starla pointed out, trying to keep her voice matter-of-fact.
“She is right,” Alli said. “She needs to find somewhere to hide. As long as she has the Flek with her, Heny can find her.”
With that, Alli moved to Lua's corridor. With one last backward glance, she disappeared into its shadows.
Gaby and Fey disappeared, too, Gaby still scowling at the barrier.
“Rya, we're wasting time.” Starla's calm façade cracked and her voice came out pleading.
“Fine,” Rya said. “But please don't do anything stupid or heroic. Just hide and wait for us. And stay close to Flek.”
Starla found a smile. “See you soon, Rya.”
Rya said nothing, passing through the last passage in silence, her lips turned down in dissatisfaction.
Starla watched her leave and then glanced up the staircase around the immediate bend in the corridor. The barrier had prevented the Sacrileons from getting close enough to spot it. Just below their first spiralled edge was a fairly good place to hide. The thought of waiting, of doing nothing, while Larkel hung above a pit of flame was excruciating. Starla looked back the way Rya had gone.
“Sorry,” she murmured. Then she was trotting silently up the stairs. Flek said something unintelligible, then followed, a few paces behind.
No one was there to notice the shadows that slid from the walls and wafted silently down the passages, hunting the Sacrileons.
The spiralling stairs seemed to go on for too long. Starla kept her eyes open for any side passages or doors. She was fairly certain that the place she had seen had to be down at ground level or even, perhaps, below.
Starla was thinking of turning back and waiting for the Guardians as promised before she saw an abrupt end to the stair just ahead.
She flung herself back around the last twist of the stairs. A drodemion shaman was patrolling the entrance to the corridor above. Starla breathed deeply to calm her heart. She h
oped this shaman would not feel the Star as the one back in the grobblers' camp had been able to do, that Ezira's spell held true. She risked a peek back around the bend in the stairs.
The drodemion was still at its post, shuffling its way back and forth across the entrance. It appeared to be in a trance. It looked neither left nor right, it's burnt feet trailing bits of shrivelled skin where its ceaseless pacing had ripped them loose.
Kyron's cruelty hardened her determination, feeding the anger inside her. That had been a person, once. She glanced around again for the little niche she had seen earlier. There, a few more steps down, she spotted it, a crack in the wall just about big enough for her to squeeze through. Moving quickly and quietly, she slipped inside. It bent away from the stairs then ended.
Perfect!
It would conceal her unless the drodemion looked directly at the little alcove. She wriggled back out.
Flek was watching her uneasily, glancing back down the stairs as if wishing the Sacrileons would hurry back.
She bent towards him until his ear was close to her mouth and then whispered her instructions.
“I need you to distract the drodemion at the top of the stairs. To get it away from there. Make it follow you so that I can get past,” she added quickly. “If you can lose it afterwards, come back to me. Otherwise, find Gaby.”
Flek eyed her then shook his head.
“Please, Flek. We can't hide here. If someone enters this niche there'd be no where to run.”
He pawed the ground twice, then flicked his ears back and began to head up the stairs.
A strange bark echoed down from the top of the stairs. Starla squeezed herself as far back into the alcove as she could manage as the sound of heavy footfalls drew closer from above.
A furry, orange blur shot past her, followed shortly by the drodemion shaman, its breath rattling eerily in its chest as it passed Starla's hiding place. Starla waited, listening hard, until she was sure the heavy footsteps were far enough down the stairs. She climbed nimbly from the niche and ran up the remaining stairs.
