The Tekhen of Anuket
Page 20
Glancing around, she took stock of her surroundings. Ahead, pale light filtered through a vast wall of water plunging past a huge opening. She seemed to be in a large, stone cavern, behind a waterfall. Her hair lifted as the white torrent pushed a damp breeze into the cave. Droplets of moisture clung to everything, making the floor slippery and the walls drip. Every breath she drew of the laden air smelled of moss and fresh water.
As soon as it was clear there was no real danger, Jade turned to help the others coming through the Portal behind her.
First came Phoenix, looking every inch the warrior with wild black hair, a dirty-white shirt and iron-studded leather arm and leg guards. In one hand he held his mount’s reins, in the other he clutched Blódbál, the enchanted sword given to him by Thor. Five of the seven blood-rubies embedded in the handle of his Life-dagger, sparkled at his hip as he stepped past Jade. Smears of dried blood darkened his clothes and skin. He looked exhausted but determined - a far cry from the cocksure fourteen year old boy who had awoken just two weeks ago to find himself trapped in an unfamiliar body in an unreal world.
After him came Brynn, yanking on the reins of his frightened pony. The young Breton boy had never ridden before their time in Svealand and the pony knew exactly who was boss. Looking a bit like an undersized Jedi in his stolen monk’s robe, Brynn flinched at the onslaught of sound, shook his tousled auburn head and blinked in surprise. Recovering, he sent Jade a rueful, gap-toothed grin, pointed at his stubborn beast and shrugged.
The pony dug its front feet into the rock as it strained backward, brown eyes wild with fear. Only halfway through the glimmering portal, its rump would still be sticking out, into the Alexandrian dawn in faraway Egypt. Jade hurried forward. She commanded both his pony and Phoenix’s grey stallion so they could be led aside to let Marcus through.
The handsome Roman boy emerged. If the roar affected him, the only sign he showed was a slight clenching of his jaw. His dark hair was trimmed much shorter than Phoenix’s shoulder-length mop and his bare, soot-smudged arms were more tanned. His once-white Roman tunic was somewhat the worse for wear after their long night fighting in the Temple of Set. Dried blood crusted a shallow cut across his chest. Although obviously weary, he walked lightly and carried himself with his usual quiet dignity. He had fisted two sets of reins in one hand and held his long-bladed Svear sword in the other. A bow and quiver of arrows were slung across one shoulder and a short dagger sheathed at one hip.
Before long, all five horses were standing quite calmly, as though they couldn’t even hear the tumultuous booming that shook the chamber.
In the few minutes it took for their eyes to adjust to the light, Jade noticed that her friends all looked as tired as she felt. Maybe they should have stayed one more night in Alexandria. No, she dismissed the thought with regret; they had only 5 days to finish this Quest. They couldn’t afford to waste any time.
She and Phoenix had already been trapped as Players in this 2000 year old game-world for two weeks too long. There was no telling how much time had passed in the real world. Any day now, the real-world game would be opened to the public domain on the internet and they might be swamped with other Players. She wondered if there would be any way of telling when the game was opened to the rest of the world. Would there be some sort of sign in the heavens? Some sort of awareness that they weren’t alone any more in a demo version? Or was this world real, as they’d been told back on level One in Albion? Jade glanced around the damp cave. It certainly felt real enough. In fact, she realised, she’d long since stopped even doubting it.
She sighed. At the beginning of this adventure she’d been quite hopeful that they’d be home in a few days. It had now been two weeks and things were tougher each Level. It never seemed this hard in the books she read. They still had to finish Level Four and Five in order to get home, and they were all exhausted.
Jade pressed her lips together and adjusted the hood of her cloak. Out of habit, she touched the half-amulet that hung about her neck. It was safe. The two halves had drawn her and Phoenix into this realm and she was fairly sure they’d need them to get home again – assuming they ever managed to get to Level Five and defeat Zhudai. If they didn’t, she and Phoenix could face a lifetime, trapped in this other-world of ancient violence.
She shuddered and screwed up her nose in an effort to prevent the sting of tears. She’d started this game as an escape from her ordinary life; a way of diving into the type of adventure realm she’d read about for years; a way of being something she was not. Actually being transported into the computer game had so not been part of her plan. Now she was stuck in a fantasy-world-real-world version of 80AD, somewhere deep in India, with a Quest to complete that she had no idea how to even begin.
Maybe she was just tired. She’d used a lot of energy up during the battle to save Brynn and release the Goddess Anuket in Egypt. With little sleep over the last forty-eight hours and days spent away from the forests her Elven heritage craved, she was exhausted. Unfortunately, knowing why she felt miserable didn’t mean she could help feeling that way.
Ignoring Marcus’ disapproving gaze, she quickly pulled out her herb bag. St John’s Wort for depression and some barley grass for energy. That should do the trick. Marcus might think she could handle anything without the help of her herbs but she knew better. Her half-Elven avatar needed the herbs to supplement her magic. Without them, she just wasn’t good enough to cope with this world.
She put the bag away and readjusted the weight of her backpack. Inside was the Hyllion Bagia – the bottomless bag that now held Sudarshana, a silver, disc-shaped chakra weapon. Anuket had told them to return it to its rightful owner on the last night of the dying moon, so that’s what they had to do.
Regrettably, Anuket had been big on cryptic predictions but a bit short on details – like who the rightful owner was; what broken thing would it fix; what person who had done wrong would be redeemed; and whose Empire it would unite? There was no way of knowing. All Jade knew, from previous game instructions, was that the Quest had to be completed in the city of Punya-Vishaya, in India. Even that didn’t help much. Wandering about a foreign city asking for the owner of a slab of pure silver was about as smart as wearing a sign on your forehead saying “please mug me”.
No, they would have to find a more subtle way of tracing who it belonged to. Actually, first they’d have to find the city of Punya. OK, no: first they had to find a way out of this cave – if a way out even existed ….
*****
Hope you enjoyed Book Three. Book Four will be published shortly. You can find out more about the 80AD series by Aiki Flinthart at: http://aikiflinthart.weebly.com/
Discover 80AD Book One - The Jewel of Asgard - at Amazon.
Discover 80AD Book Two - The Hammer of Thor - at Amazon.
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