“They’re so beautiful,” Paley said, touching one of the flower’s delicate petals.
Van agreed, awed by the gorgeous array.
“I wonder how they manage to grow here. There’s no light,” Brux commented. “They seem unnatural to me. Be careful, Paley.”
Jorie guzzled water, then used her sleeve to wipe her mouth. “They’re four-petaled lotus flowers.” She nudged Paley with the wineskin. “Their genus is aquatic. Maybe the mica in the walls gives them enough light to grow here.”
Paley took a quick sip, then handed the pouch back to Jorie and continued examining the flowers.
Jorie sat down on a nearby rock and took another squirt of water from the wineskin, when Paley shrieked, “Oh, my gosh! I found it!”
“Found what?” Van said skeptically.
“I found— ” Paley turned around, glowing. Between her thumb and index finger, she held a small gold coin the same size and color as the center of a lotus flower. “The Coin!”
“Let me see.” Jorie reached to grab the coin.
Paley closed her hand into a tight fist. “It’s mine! I found it! This means I’m the Anchoress, not Van!”
“Paley. Give me the coin,” Jorie insisted. “I need to check it, to make sure it’s the real thing. That’s all.”
“I found it!” Paley said stubbornly.
Jorie stood unyielding, with her palm outstretched toward Paley “Don’t make me take it from you.”
Paley’s brow furrowed, and she grudgingly handed it over.
Jorie inspected it, turning it front to back, then shook her head. “I don’t know.” She handed it to Brux. “What do you think?”
Brux studied the coin. “Uh . . . I don’t know.” He handed it to Van. “You look.”
Van took the coin. It appeared similar to the coin necklace Van had seen in Amaryl’s vision, but without the finer details. Plus, they hadn’t yet faced the challenge of the Minotaur. And where was Loka, the Elemental Guardian of the Coin?
However, if Van’s stepmother had taught her anything over the years, it was how to tell real gold jewelry from fakes. And this coin was pure gold. It would be worth a fortune, even if it weren’t the Coin. Van’s fingers twitched, thinking of the things she could buy—that ring she wanted, the expensive one Genie wouldn’t let her get; the newest line of haute couture clothes; pocketbooks, shoes, boots in every style and color . . .
A voice penetrated Van’s awareness. “Evil tempts those with greed in their hearts.” Ildiss had originally said it, but the words came in the voice of Jacynthia, strong enough to shake Van loose from her obsessive thoughts.
“It’s not the Coin,” Van said, holding it out for Paley to take.
Paley swiped the coin from Van’s hand. “Oh! You’re just jealous! You can’t stand the fact that I’m special, too!”
“Put it back,” Van demanded. “It’s not ours.”
Paley defiantly stuffed the coin into her pocket.
Though annoyed, Van realized Paley had attached to the lowest part of her Self: greed.
Was Paley always like this? Van wondered. Is this how I am? Is this why we became friends on the island? The difference was that Van had learned to overcome her darker Self during this journey. Paley obviously had not. The challenges the team faced brought out Van’s best. For Paley, they brought out the worst.
“I agree with Van,” Jorie said. “We need to leave things the way we found them.”
“This whole thing doesn’t feel right,” Brux said.
The lotus flowers wilted and shriveled.
Van stiffened, as her nostrils picked up a rancid stench.
A gruff snorting sound echoed into the cavern from the tunnel.
Van pivoted toward the opening and saw it.
Glaring black eyes peered from the head of a bull, its pair of horns thick and twisted. Its male torso looked like an experiment with steroids gone terribly wrong. Its lower half became a bull again, complete with hooves. Its long tail swished and snapped. It let out a deafening roar, as it stomped into the cavern.
Paley screamed and took off in the opposite direction, followed by Jorie.
Van stood like an idiot, rooted to the ground in shock until Brux grabbed her.
The Minotaur’s unnatural body moved awkwardly, which somewhat slowed it down.
They sped through the tunnels until they could run no more.
“We should be okay,” Jorie said, her torch flickering back and forth with each breath. “We’ve outrun it, for now.”
Van leaned against the tunnel wall, catching her breath.
A rancid odor filled the air.
“It must know shortcuts through the tunnels!” Brux cried.
A blaring roar shook the tunnel walls, as the Minotaur entered through a perpendicular opening a few feet away. It went directly for Paley.
She shrieked, as its disturbingly human hands grabbed her, lifted her high, and threw her against the tunnel wall.
Jorie wedged the torch between two rocks and whipped out Zachery. She sliced the monster. It batted Jorie aside as if she were a rag doll and let out a roar so loud, it caused more debris to fall.
Van backed away, shaking. How on earth was she supposed to defeat this thing?
Brux unsheathed his dagger. He slashed the Minotaur, barely piercing its skin and only making it angrier.
It swatted at Brux, who ducked and leaped out of range, but instead of going after him, it turned and went for Paley again, who remained unconscious.
Paley! Van pulled herself from her trance and rushed at the Minotaur. She flew through the air using a Koga-clava kick. As her foot crashed into the back of the Minotaur’s knee, Van felt pain shoot up her leg. It was as if she had hit a stone wall. She thumped to the ground and heard a crunch as she landed on her hip.
The monster twisted and reached in her direction.
Before the Minotaur clutched Van, Jorie sank Zachery into its back.
Its nostrils flared, and it let out an enormous cry. It turned and swiped its arm, smashing Jorie against the wall. More dust and rubble loosened, followed by rocks and stones.
The tunnel was collapsing.
“Van!” Brux yelled, his voice muffled by the crashing boulders.
Van pulled her aching body from the ground and ran from the rockslide. She took shelter in a nook. When the collapse subsided, she cautiously stepped out. She stood in complete darkness, but she could see clearly, as if her eyes had turned into a self-generating flashlight. She felt a slight tingling in her body, like a switch had turned on an electrical connection to the magic in her bloodline. As the Anchoress, she had abilities beyond the norm and could use her flashlight eyes as a protective mechanism. She knew in this moment that her eyes glowed violet.
The rockslide had completely blocked the passageway. Brux, Jorie, and Paley were nowhere in sight. She had no idea where the Minotaur was, but she guessed the boulders had crushed it.
She crept over to the barrier and saw flesh—a human arm—sticking out of the bottom edge of the rubble. Van quickly scooped away the rocks.
“Jorie—” Van said, her voice quavering.
Jorie lay motionless, splotched in blood. Her legs were bent at unnatural angles, and her chest appeared mortally indented with no rhythmic breathing.
“Jorie!” Van cried. With manic intensity, she tried to clear away every stone and speck of dirt from her friend. “Jorie!”
Van clasped Jorie’s head and gently turned it forward. “Jorie!” She tried to brush dirt from Jorie’s cheeks, but it turned to smudges as Van’s tears dropped. She placed two fingers on Jorie’s neck to feel her carotid for a pulse. There was none. “Jorie . . . ” Van wept, hugging her friend.
She glimpsed Zachery’s handle and pulled it from the rubble. “I’ll take good care of him, your labrys. I will.” She brushed away her own tears. She needed to be strong for Jorie now. “You can count on it.”
She heard a slight toppling of stones coming from the mound. Worried a
bout the rest of her friends, she stood and called out, “Brux?”
Eerie silence answered.
“Paley?”
A tiny pebble tumbled from the middle of the rubble.
The hairs stood up on the nape of Van’s neck. She took a step backward.
A grotesque distortion of a massive human hand burst from the debris, followed by the Minotaur’s horned head and colossal body. It saw Van and snorted. It traipsed toward her, and the boulders in its path spilled aside like dust.
Van raced off.
The Minotaur stomped after her so hard, its hooves shook the ground.
Van twisted to calculate her lead; she stumbled and fell. A wrenching pain shot up her ankle. She scrambled to her feet and tried to get away, but her sprained ankle gave out. With this injury, she would never be able to outrun the creature. She hobbled to the entrance of a nearby tunnel and hid in a natural hollow, hoping the Minotaur would pass her by.
No such luck.
When the Minotaur stopped at the tunnel’s entryway, it sniffed, let out a grunt, and headed straight for Van.
The Minotaur had a heightened sense of smell and flashlight eyes, too.
Van fled. Into a dead end.
She was trapped.
“No!” Van hacked at the dirt wall using Zachery, to no avail.
She heard snorts and the shuffling of hooves coming from behind her.
She turned to meet her fate.
The Minotaur took up most of the space in the narrow tunnel, as it came plodding toward her.
Van panicked and hurled Zachery at the beast.
The labrys bounced off the monster’s tough skin like a pebble. It roared in annoyance and steadily lumbered forward.
That was dumb, thought Van. Now I don’t have any weapon!
“Everyone is provided with what they need.” Jacynthia’s words came to Van.
I need an army to combat this monster! And I don’t seem to have that in my pocket!
The Minotaur loomed close enough for Van to feel its rancid breath on her face. She cringed.
My pocket! thought Van. She plunged her hand into her pocket and pulled out her mother’s earrings, remembering that some animals liked shiny objects. She hoped the Minotaur was one of them.
As the Minotaur reached for Van, she dangled the earrings at it like a cat’s toy.
It stopped, seemingly startled, then let out a livid roar and swiped at Van.
She ducked, avoiding the beast, and, in the process, clasped her mother’s earrings so tightly in her hand, they got stuck together, fitting like pieces to a puzzle. Then the earrings burst into a silvery orb of light. The orb spun in Van’s palm, making beautifully haunting music composed from the purest notes of peace and love.
The Minotaur dropped to its knees and raised its black eyes to Van. Tears ran down its bull-shaped cheeks. It reached out a trembling hand to Van. It wanted the orb.
The beast was subdued. Van could've smashed its head with a rock and taken off. Instead, her heart went out to the sad creature, and she handed it the orb. She felt a pang of regret for giving away her mother’s earrings, but she didn't need them anymore. She felt secure knowing that her mother had loved her, and that gift far surpassed anything material.
Delighted, the creature accepted the offering, jumped up, and scurried away.
Van noticed it limping. Its leg trailed blood, having been injured from the cave-in.
Before turning the corner, it twisted around to catch Van’s attention and waved its arm. It wanted her to follow.
Van scooped up Zachery, tucked it in her belt, and hurried after the Minotaur. It led her to an opening that broke into four passageways.
The beast went down the tunnel to the far right—the dark scary tunnel.
Crammed with riches, the other passageways beckoned. The one to the left contained mounds of gold and silver coins; another was filled with heaps of diamond and ruby jewelry, haute couture dresses, shoes, and designer pocketbooks. But Van found it most difficult to turn away from the third tunnel: a portal to her bedroom in Mt. Hope Manor.
She heard a scuffle in the dark tunnel and became concerned the wounded Minotaur might need help. She decided her bedroom could wait and hurried down the tunnel after it.
Intuitively, she knew the grandfather clock in Uxa’s office had struck midnight.
Another day was gone.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Day 23: Living World
Van hoped Brux and Paley were okay, as she followed the Minotaur through winding tunnels, going deeper and deeper into the bowels of the labyrinth. It led her onto a precipice in an enormous chasm. The site looked like a snapshot from her geology textbook. Glowing flowstone covered the walls, and stalactites hung in beautiful formations from above. A river rumbled far below.
Glowing minerals in the cave walls dimly lit the cavern, and Van’s flashlight eyes allowed her to plainly see. Still, she blinked to clear her vision. At first, she thought the Minotaur had walked across the chasm on air. Then she realized it had scuffled along a narrow strip of ground suspended across the wide opening. Light emanating from the orb revealed a camouflaged dirt bridge.
The other side of the chasm appeared so far away, it made Van queasy. Her fear of heights raged, but she crept to the edge anyway and peeked down. Bad idea—now she felt paralyzed by anxiety.
“The only way out is through,” she told herself.
She had come too far to fail. She swallowed her fear and, determined to follow the Minotaur, placed a shaky step onto the narrow strip a hair wider than her boot. Stalagmites reached upward from below, like nails in a coffin, mocking her, making sure she knew how far she would drop with one wrong step.
She watched as the lumbering Minotaur easily made its way across, its hooves unchallenged by the narrow width of the dirt bridge.
She had to move quickly if she didn’t want to lose track of the Minotaur on the other side, unsure whether it would wait. She took a deep, calming breath and repeated over and over, “I got this . . . I got this . . . ”
Van took a step, then another, and another. It felt like walking a tightrope—a skill she had learned in her special classes. However, in her classes, the suspension hung three feet above the gym floor, not over an abyss. Still, she could do this.
Her injured ankle gave out, and she wobbled.
Her arms flew to the side, and she caught her balance. She breathed evenly. “I got this.”
Then fog rolled in.
Van stopped and held steady, as her vision became obscured.
The fog ahead cleared.
The bridge was wider, and Paley stood there. She held the Coin. The real Coin.
“You were wrong,” Paley said. “I have the Coin.”
Van knew Paley spoke the truth.
“You can’t have it. It’s mine.” Paley wobbled, losing her balance.
Van wanted to say, “Be careful,” but didn’t. She felt nothing but hatred toward Paley and her greed.
Paley screeched, as she tumbled over the side. Her hands clutched the dirt bridge, as her body dangled in the air. “Van! Help!”
The Coin precariously balanced on the edge of the bridge, next to Paley’s hand.
The bridge began to crumble.
Van had time to save only one.
She dashed forward and bent down, grasping Paley’s hand just before the edge of the bridge broke away.
The Coin tumbled through the air, falling into the depths of the cavern.
The fog cleared.
It took Van a moment to realize that she stood on the bridge in the exact same place as before the hallucination.
“It was one of Loka’s tests,” she muttered, shaking her head to clear it. “I guess I passed.” She continued across the bridge in time to see the Minotaur disappear down one of the tunnels.
The tunnel led into a small cavern. Millions of shimmering glass shards covered the walls. It’s a mix of anhydrite and gypsum, Van recalled learning from Elmot. A lak
e had formed in a natural cradle of bloodstone on the opposite side of the cavern. Reflections of the breathtaking crystal walls sparkled in its water.
Van had entered the heart of the caves. She knew this because in the center of the chasm sat a woman.
Seated serenely on an elaborate gold throne imprinted with phases of the moon, the woman wore red and gold robes and a crown of stars. She had long hair the color of ripe wheat, and her eyes reflected the same deep blue as the lake water behind her. A woven basket full of pomegranates lay uneaten by her feet. As Van approached, the woman’s terracotta lips curved into a smile.
“Welcome, young one. I am Lady Loka, the Elemental Guardian of the Coin.” Her voice had a motherly quality, rich with ancient wisdom.
“Um . . . h-hi,” Van said, in awe of such ethereal beauty.
The Minotaur took its place beside Lady Loka and her grand throne. Next to the Elemental, its animal features softened, making it look more human than bull. It still held the musical orb.
“You are early, my child. But you have proved yourself worthy thus far.” Lady Loka paused. She and the Minotaur stared at Van, unblinking.
Van felt pressured to say something. “I-I’m sorry if I’m early. The Alignment—Luxta—is ending, and I have to get back to Salus Valde.” She sounded like a babbling idiot. It would be a miracle if Lady Loka let her take the Coin.
“Many people worship the Light,” Lady Loka said. “And at the same time choose to make themselves slaves to materialism. They do unspeakable things in the name of the Light, in order to possess things. Yet they do not know that money and objects have no power in their own right. It is our worship of material things that gives them power. To combat this obsession of materialism, spirit must rise above greed.”
Am I still being tested? Van wondered. She said, “Agreed,” hoping she would pass.
“Darkness cannot harm you unless you attach to it by giving it attention, which gives it energy. This means evil on the physical plane is brought about by humanity’s choices and, for that reason, can be prevented.” Lady Loka paused again. “I am satisfied you have learned the cure to this Plague of Evil. That you understand the Elemental Law of Abundance—everyone is provided with what they need to fulfill their spiritual destiny. When this is known, there is no need to align with Darkness by giving in to fear, greed, materialism, or prejudice, and, therefore, no consequence of evil.” Lady Loka gave Van a nod. “You have overcome this flaw of human nature and have passed my tests.”
Shock of Fate: A Young Adult Fantasy Adventure (Anchoress Series Book 1) Page 36
