World in Chains- The Complete Series

by Ryan W. Mueller

  They were approaching the end of the corridor when it happened. Just as Selene and Dirk were about to step out into a large chamber, the floor swung open beneath them. They both screamed and tried to grab something, but the area of floor that had fallen was far too large, and they were right in the middle of it.

  Rik rushed forward and fell to his knees at the edge of the opening, but there was nothing he could do. They had already fallen. The space below looked black and empty.

  Eliza was on her knees beside him. "Father! Are you all right?"

  No response.

  She called out again, and Rik joined her, but no one responded.

  "Selene could have used a whirlwind to cushion the fall," Eliza said.

  "She probably did, but it won't be enough to get them back here." Rik took a deep breath, feeling queasy. "We'll have to brave this place on our own."

  Two narrow walkways ran on each side of the large opening. Rik didn't relish the thought of walking so close to the edge, but he had no choice. He couldn't depend on Selene and Dirk. For all he knew, they were trapped, or even dead.

  "We can do it," Eliza said.

  "You know something? You almost make me believe you when you say that." He had no idea how she could retain her optimistic views when her father had just plunged hundreds of feet into a seemingly bottomless abyss. Rik wished he could approach life the same way.

  "There's no point in thinking they're dead," she said. "That will only make us give up. Sometimes, being optimistic is the most practical way to view things."

  Rik didn't know how to respond to that, so he started across the narrow ledge. He stood with his back to the wall, inching along it, staring into the black abyss. His legs trembled, and sweat trickled from his red hair. Deep breaths. He could do this. It was just a little farther.

  Eliza had stepped onto the ledge behind him, and she appeared to have no trouble. Rik knew he was more afraid of heights than most, but her nonchalant attitude toward potential death seemed strange. He did not understand her at all.

  The other side of the hole seemed as if it would never come. The farther Rik moved along the ledge, the dizzier he felt. Panic tightened its talons upon his chest.

  "It's just a little farther," Eliza said. "You're really brave."

  Brave? Rik wasn't so sure about that. A brave man wouldn't let his fear get the better of him in a situation like this.

  Less than ten feet to go. He could do this. Breathe. Take it inch-by-inch. Don't look down.

  The chasm loomed ahead of him, black and terrifying.

  Less than five feet. He couldn't take it any longer. Though it was foolish, he pushed with everything he had and jumped across the last five feet. Anything was better than staying on that ledge. When he landed without incident, he felt as if a great weight had been removed from his chest. He lay on the ground, pulse pounding in his ears, trying to get his breathing back to normal. Maybe he could lie here forever and forget everything existed.

  "We should get moving," Eliza said, once she reached his side.

  "Can't I rest awhile?"

  She gave him a stern look, the kind of look he might expect from his mother, not from this young woman who seemed so naïve about everything.

  "All right." He pushed himself to his feet. "Let's go."

  They stepped into the chamber beyond the hole in the floor. This chamber didn't contain any stairs. In fact, it seemed far too large for what it did hold. There, in the center of the room, was a single pedestal on top of which there was a single scroll.

  "Could that have been the challenge in this place?" Rik asked.

  Eliza shrugged. "Well, it did challenge us quite a bit, didn't it?"

  Rik approached the scroll with careful steps, afraid the floor might crumble beneath him. Besides, he'd learned the hard way about rushing to claim an object in a place like this. He still blamed himself for getting Kara sent to the Shadowed Land. If only he'd been more careful.

  Step by step, he approached the pedestal. At last, he stood close enough to grab the scroll. He took a deep breath, then picked it up. Nothing happened.

  He unfurled the scroll and tried to read it, but it made no sense. Though he recognized the letters, they seemed to be arranged in a nonsensical pattern. He'd heard of the Order back home using codes to keep their correspondence safe from Imperial Guards. Was this something similar? But how could he ever figure out the code?

  "What does it say?" Eliza asked.

  He handed her the scroll. "Read it for yourself."

  She bit her lower lip as she read. "It's written in code. That much is obvious."

  "Yeah, I know, but what's the code?"

  "I have no idea."

  Rik took the scroll back and stuffed it into his small leather traveling pack. As he fastened the straps on his pack, he surveyed his surroundings. The room still looked empty apart from the pedestal. He knelt low and examined it more carefully.

  There was nothing written on the pedestal.

  "Looks like we're stuck in here," he said.

  "We can't be stuck," Eliza said. "We just have to think a little more creatively."

  Rik paced the edges of the chamber, looking for any indication of what they should do, but the walls were made of blank gray stone, completely unremarkable in appearance. Nothing in the entire chamber gave them any clues.

  And he was not going back across that ledge.

  "Can I look at the scroll again?" Eliza asked.

  Rik took it from his pack and handed it to her. "I doubt you'll find anything."

  She turned it over in her hands for what felt like hours, but nothing happened. Rik began pacing, trying to think of anything. Even if he could bring himself to cross the ledge, the gate on the other side remained closed. They needed to find a stone to take them out of here.

  Rik returned to the pedestal. The answer had to be there. He examined it more closely, looking for any irregularity he might have missed.

  "Wait," he said. "We needed magic to get through the last area. Maybe we need it again."

  Eliza smiled. "That makes perfect sense. Why didn't I think of it?"

  Rik touched his staff to the pedestal, but nothing happened, so he channeled light through the staff. To his amazement, there was a low rumble. The pedestal shifted to the side, and the floor opened slowly, revealing a set of stairs leading downward into darkness.

  "I don't like it," Eliza said. "There's something evil down there."

  Once, Rik would have laughed at such a feeling, like he had with Markus back in Woodsville. But now Rik understood that people with natural magical abilities could sense things that mere channelers could not.

  "I'll go first," Rik said. "Stay close behind me." He started down the stairs, lighting the tip of his staff. As soon as both of them were below the opening, the floor shifted back into place, trapping them. Rik was really starting to hate this place.

  His staff's light cast an eerie glow upon the walls, and their shadows danced like black ghosts. At first, the narrow passage was straight, but then they reached a branch.

  Rik kept his voice low. "Any idea which way we should go?"

  Eliza glanced to the left, then to the right, then back to the left. "I think we should go left. The air feels less evil that way."

  "Sounds good to me."

  They started to the left, following the passage as it twisted along, pushing through spider webs. The air smelled so old and dusty that Rik wondered how long it had been since anyone had last visited this place. Dirt crunched beneath their leather shoes.

  "We need to go faster," Eliza whispered. "I can feel evil coming from behind us."

  Rik increased his pace to a quick walk. He didn't want to run in a place like this. It seemed like a bad idea. When he glanced back, he saw nothing threatening, but he trusted Eliza's instincts. He thought he could almost feel that evil himself, and that was not a good sign. By the time he'd felt the dangers in Woodsville, it had almost been too late.

  A sudden blast of
cold wind raced through the tunnel, carrying an evil presence within. Rik felt as if that wind had turned his blood to ice. He couldn't move.

  "Rik, you need to run! Now!"

  He tried to open his mouth to speak, but he couldn't move it, couldn't move any muscle in his body. It felt as if he'd been turned to stone. Panic surged through him. Surely he would have been trembling if his body could move.

  Eliza pulled at Rik's arm but succeeded only in making him fall. When he hit the ground, he didn't feel the impact, but he heard the sound of stone on stone. It didn't just feel as if he'd been turned to stone.

  He had been turned to stone. Literally.

  He lay with his face pressed to the ground, unable to move. The air grew so cold he felt it in his bones. He wanted to tell Eliza to run and save herself, but he couldn't form the words, couldn't do anything. He hadn't felt this powerless since the moment he'd lain on the executioner's block in the Oasis Outpost.

  Eliza screamed, but there was nothing he could do for her. He couldn't even see what was threatening her. Every time he tried to move, he felt no control over his body. This was worse than any fear of heights. He'd been trapped in his own body, aware but powerless.

  Was this how he would die?

  Or worse, would he be stuck like this for eternity?

  Chapter 24: The God's Demands

  Danica stood in a room deep within Krinir's fortress. The god loomed beside her as they both stared at a machine resembling the one she'd used to create the portal to the Shadowed Land. There were so many glowing lights and buttons and screens that she couldn't possibly understand how she'd use it to get home.

  But how could she return without bringing Krinir with her? This room was always locked, and he'd told her that she could enter it only with him.

  "Time to get started," he said.

  Danica took slow steps toward the machine, glancing around as though she could find a secret escape route. "And if I can't do it?"

  "Then you'll keep working on it until you can."

  He didn't need to make any threat. With a chill, she recalled how casually he'd killed Renaud and Valencia. Yes, they'd been her captors, but they were still human beings, and they didn't deserve to die on a god's whim.

  Heart pounding, she approached the machine. Krinir pressed the button that started the machine's buzzing, and she clung to the arm of the machine.

  The buzzing filled her, and she focused on creating a portal back to Terra. When the portal opened up, swirling with strange colors, it revealed a misty landscape.

  "Still the Shadowed Land," Krinir said.

  Danica tried again, focusing now on the laboratory from which she'd entered the Shadowed Land. Again, the portal opened, showing a misty landscape. Every time she tried to create a portal, the mist remained, hanging over everything like a thick curtain.

  Krinir stepped closer. "Are you even trying?"

  "Of course I am," she said, trembling.

  His expression was unreadable. "I knew it wouldn't be easy. We'll try again tomorrow. I've been waiting for hundreds of years. A few more days won't change anything." He moved toward the exit. "Come. I'll show you to your chambers."

  They navigated the branching corridors of the fortress. There were a few servants, but the halls still felt deserted. When they finally reached her chambers, Krinir pushed the door open, revealing a warm and inviting space beyond. The bed looked softer than anywhere she'd slept in a long time. The dresser was full of beautiful clothes. There were no windows, though.

  However nice this place was, it still felt like a prison.

  She stepped into the room while Krinir remained in the doorway, watching her. After a few moments, he said, "You are free to wander the fortress, as long as you don't try to force your way through any locked doors. Though I have to admit you couldn't get through them even if you tried. I've put very powerful locks on them."

  Danica's mouth felt dry. "I wouldn’t try even if I could."

  "Good. I'll have some of the servants bring you books on magic. Perhaps they'll help you discover how to create the portal we need." He narrowed his eyes. "You can read, can't you?"

  She nodded, feeling sick to her stomach.

  "Good. I'll come for your services tomorrow."

  With that, he left the room. Danica settled down in a chair at the side of the room, trying to figure out what she should do. There had to be a way out of this, but she wasn't seeing it. After all, how could she stand against a god?

  Even if she did succeed in returning him to the normal world, she wouldn't live long after that. Surely Krinir didn't want anyone to know his true plans. Freeing him from the Shadowed Land would be the last thing she ever did.

  So it was in her best interest to delay as much as possible. But how much could she stall without making him suspicious?

  Soon servants arrived with books about magic. The servants were strange and silent, going about their business as if they were dead inside. She tried to talk to them, and they responded with little more than nods and shrugs.

  Unnerved by their behavior, she began leafing through the books with no real clue as to what she was looking for. Most of the texts described magic based on the elements: Fire, Water, Ice, Lightning, Earth, Wind, Darkness, and Light. It mentioned the Pilgrimage and the temples. But she had trouble finding anything about portals.

  The closest she came was a teleportation ability that came from Darkness magic, but that still wasn't right. The sorcerers of Luminia had been trying to teleport to the Shadowed Land for a long time without success, so clearly whatever she was doing wasn't the same.

  Of course, most of these books were very old. Could the sorcerers have discovered a way to make that journey? Surely Krinir would know if they had. Though she didn’t know the extent of his powers, she figured he had to have a way to communicate with people from Terra. He was a god after all. Weren't gods supposed to be all-powerful?

  But he couldn't be. If he were all-powerful, he wouldn't need her.

  Her stomach twisted at the thought of leading Krinir back to her world. She wanted to put little effort into finding a way home. After all, this fortress seemed a comfortable enough place in an otherwise bleak world. But she couldn't be lazy. Krinir would know.

  And she would suffer for it.

  She had to be going about this the wrong way. With a disgusted sigh, she tossed aside the book she was reading. She'd never felt so frustrated in her life. There were no good choices here, and no clear paths to any goal. It felt as if the walls were closing in on her.

  Deep breaths. She had to focus, had to find a way out of this.

  The kind of magic she used obviously wasn't based on the elemental magic of the temples. It was an innate ability, like Berig's strong senses or Farah's healing. She had to check the books that described innate abilities.

  It was a long and boring search, but eventually she did find a few books on the subject. However, as she read them, she didn't find anything about creating portals. Perhaps she was the only person ever to possess such a talent. If that was the case, she wouldn't find anything in these books, and then she'd face Krinir's wrath.

  She must have dozed off at some point. When she woke, somebody was pounding on the door to her room. Her body felt stiff, and her chest hurt where she'd fallen asleep on a book.

  "Coming," she said, staggering across the room. By the time she reached the door, she had begun to wake up. She opened the door.

  A servant stood in the doorway, his expression grim. "The master wishes to see you. Come with me."

  Danica didn't have the energy to say anything. Feeling sick to her stomach, she followed the servant through the fortress's corridors. Eventually, they reached the same large foyer where she'd initially met Krinir. He stood in one corner of the room, looking stern.

  She opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong, but her voice didn't work.

  "Finally," he said. "I've forgotten how much you mortals like your sleep."

  Her voice ca
me out, but she still felt shaky. "Do you need something?"

  She didn't know if there was some title she should use to address him, but she didn't care. As far as she was concerned, he was a monster, and monsters didn't deserve respect.

  "It's time for another attempt," he said.

  "I don't think it will work," she said. "I found nothing relating to my abilities."

  For a moment, she thought Krinir would punish her, but then his expression relaxed. "I should have known. I've never heard of anybody with such a talent before, and I have spent the centuries searching the Webs of Fate, looking for someone like you. I couldn't believe it when I finally saw your potential in the Webs."

  She hated to think that somebody could watch her life from so far away. But how else could the empire's Technomages have found her?

  "Follow me," he said. He led her toward the same room where she'd tried to open a portal before. She connected to the machine again and attempted to create portal after portal. Every last time, a misty landscape appeared. Krinir didn't say anything, but she could sense his disappointment. It felt as if it might wrap around her and squeeze her to death.

  They went through this same routine for days and days, but nothing ever changed. The effort had become exhausting. With every passing day, she felt she had to sleep more. When she tried to study magic, her eyes refused to stay open.

  Why wasn't it working? Were her failures a result of her conflicted feelings? Perhaps she needed to believe she was doing the right thing in opening this portal.

  No. That couldn't be true. She hadn't wanted to travel to Krinir's fortress in the first place, but she'd fashioned a portal anyway. So it had to involve the nature of the Shadowed Land. The place was meant as a prison. If she wanted to return home, she had to find a way to unlock the gates enclosing that prison. She knew of only one person who could do that in any form.

  Again, Krinir met her in the foyer and prepared to lead her to the room with the machine. Before they started walking, though, she stopped him.

  "You've sent people out of the Shadowed Land before," she said. "We met some of them. They were turned into ugly creatures and made unable to speak as a price for your magic."