“You are in some of these pictures, too.”
“Indeed, I am. I am not pictured with those people, though. I have never met them. I do not know who they are. Those photos do not prove that you are telling the truth.” I cast her an observing look that she appeared to ignore.
The waitress serving Camila’s food interrupted our conversation.
“Look, we are running out of time. Merlin hired me to find your sister__”
“Merlin? Where is he? I thought he is still missing.”
“Please do not interrupt me.” Camila leaned closer to my face so that her words to be heard only by me.
“It was the Board of Wizards that decided that you two should be separated. Merlin insisted that you should not__”
“Where is he now? I need to talk to him.”
“I said to not interrupt me.” Camila was now irritated. “Listen to me carefully. They are coming for us. They are coming for you.”
“Who are they?”
“Those who do not want you to reunite with your sister.” She signaled me to stop before I even opened my mouth to utter a word. “I said to not interrupt me. Merlin figured out what their plans were and left the Avallon Academy to gather an army of resistance.”
A gentle wind breezed across the room. “They found us,” Camila said while she slipped her hand into her purse. “Take this and hide it. Make sure that you draw no one’s attention on this.” She swiftly placed a plain brass ring into my palm as a whirlwind of green and lime lights started been formed in the middle of the restaurant.
“One last thing,” Camila said and hurriedly stood up. “Merin sends you a message: ‘You must solve five riddles to break out the Thorn Prison.’” Then she vanished in a puff of smoke right before white lightning strikes appeared inside the whirlwind along with a black-caped person who grabbed my hand and shoved me into the light green vortex.
The pity was that I had not even finished my lunch.
CHAPTER 2
*
A bizarre feeling of floating took over me. I suddenly felt dizzy and everything was spinning around me.
A sharp pain in my wrist made me let out a cry. A strong scent of roses filled my nostrils. I looked at my ailing hand; a handlock of thorns was around my wrist. I tried to free my limb, but the thorns tore into my skin and it started bleeding.
What was that place? It reminded me of the dungeon Mordred had locked me in for misuse of powers when my adventure with mages, sorceresses, and Time Hoppers started. If Mordred had not tracked me down back then, I would still be serving tables and I would be living my sad life, betrayed by my then-boyfriend and my former best girlfriend who thought I was silly enough not to find out about their secret relationship.
I slowly moved into a kneeling position and blinked my eyes to adjust to the darkness. I groped the floor; it was also made of rose thorns that stung every time my legs moved. My feet and knees were now marked by lacerations and scratches.
I tried to move time forward. I failed. The No-Time-Bend spell was still active.
My eyes had now adjusted to the darkness and I was able to have a better look at the thorn cell I was locked in. I reached the wall with my hand; it was made by rose thorns too. I fumbled for the shackle where my hand was locked in. Thorns again. That place was entirely made by thorns; floor, walls, cuffs. Even the chains I was in were made of rose thorns.
I took the thorn chain with my free hand. “Ouch!” I yelled as I got cut by the thorns. I let the chain drop.
A ray of light emitted from above and struck behind me. How did that light manage to get through this claustrophobic place? Was there any way to reach the opening that let the sunlight enter the cell?
Drops of sweat rolled down my forehead; my heart was pounding like a wild animal in a cage. My claustrophobic ass would never get used to being locked in. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to help my inner beast calm down.
“Do not be afraid. You have been there before.” I kept repeating to myself.
It was not the first time I was magically transported to a paranormal jail – because I was sure that it was a jail I was locked in. The first time it was Merlin who had set me free. This time, I had to do it all by myself. With a lit bit of Merlin’s help.
Merlin must have predicted what would happen and had left back some crumbs for me to find my way out.
“Merlin sends you a message: ‘You must solve five riddles to break the Thorn Prison,’” Camila had told me before she had magically vanished.
All I needed to do was to solve those riddles. But first, I had to figure out what those five riddles were about. In the cell entirely made of thorns, there was nothing to resemble a riddle.
If I wanted to regain my freedom soon, I should retain my calmness and clear thinking.
After a few moments of silence and thinking, I followed with my eyes the trajectory of the light ray from the ceiling back to the wall behind me.
“Maybe you’re the key to my freedom,” I spoke to the wall as if it were a person. I scrutinized the landing spot of the light ray and touched slightly and carefully the thorns that were within reach of my free hand.
“What are you hiding from me?” I whispered as I ran my fingers over the stones until I touched it.
My fingertips caressed the metal object that was hipped within the thorns. Three small grooves were etched into the surface of a smoothed cobble. Was it a depiction of a tree? A tree with two branches on the right side? Or was it two trees? Two trees and a three-pronged spear. A trident maybe? I scrolled my hand higher across the thorn wall and stopped when I touched another metal object. My forefinger followed a straight line that changed to a curve and then to another straight line, slightly diagonal. Was it a letter? The letter R?
I took my face closer to the thorn wall trying to take advantage of the faint light of the sole ray of light that illuminated the dim chamber. Those engravings were not some random pictures, not even symbols. They were letters of an alphabet. An ancient alphabet I was familiar with. In fact, it was the exact same alphabet I had been studying a few hours ago while resting in the Park. All those ancient letters were explicitly depicted in the old book I had left in my brown leather bag. They were Anglo-Saxon runes!
The one with three small grooves? It was not a tree! It was feoh! The Fe rune ᚠ, which represented the f sound with the original meaning of wealth.
The trident symbol represented eolhx, the name given to the x rune ᛉ, the elk’s rune.
And the R rune? That was rād, which represented riding.
And there were many others. I was locked up in a chamber with a thorn wall full of hidden runes. What would they expect me to do other than solve a riddle? Maybe it was not a riddle at all. Maybe what I was supposed to find was a hidden phrase or word. I started rearranging the letters again and again until three runes placed side by side brought a familiar word to my mind. Could that word be what I was looking for? I looked at the rest of the runes for those that could complete the word I had in mind. If they were there, then I might be close to solving the first of the five riddles Merlin had mentioned. If they were not, then I would have to start all over again.
“I think I found them,” I muttered as my shaking hand placed five Anglo-Saxon runes in a row pinched on the thorn-wall as if it was an announcement board.
First, I placed the gyfu rune (X). Then, the lagu rune (ᛚ), followed by āc (ᚪ), twice the sigel rune (ᛋ).
GLASS
As in Glass Island, also known as Afall Island where the Avallon Academy was located.
Gallons of water gushed into the cell from every crevice between the thorns it was made of. My heart thudded in my chest as the water began filling up the cell rapidly and reached the height of my knees in a few seconds. I shook my locked arm frantically. It was pointless; I was still trapped in a speedily filling cell. The level of the water kept rising. The blood pounded in my ears. I needed to find a way to get free, I needed to think clearly.
With
the water now at the level of my waist, I closed my eyes trying to concentrate and think clearly.
“Okay, what am I missing?” Putting these runes together was probably the right move. The water started flooding the cell when I was done with the word. However, the handcuff did not dissolve like when I was freed by Merlin in the prison Mordred had sent me in. What did go wrong here? What should I do next? The water had now reached my chest.
“Think, think, think.”
I looked at my handcuffed hand. I was wearing the ring Merlin had sent me through Camila. I had forgotten about it. I had instinctively put it on my finger and then I forgot it existed.
One tiny red dot was flashing on its brass surface. It reminded me of the golden rings with red gems the Black Sword Riders used to wear to break the spell and bend Time. Maybe the ring Merlin sent to me was a device for spell breaking.
Trying to keep my chin above the water, I closed my eyes again and cast the spell of transportation. The water that had covered me turned to ice.
CHAPTER 3
*
My body was trapped in the ice that had now filled in the cell. Or was it another cell? What had gone wrong this time? I requested to be transported and instead, I was covered in thick ice. I tried to cast another spell, but nothing happened. I had lost my powers again
My rib cage was being crushed under the pressure of the frozen water. My fingers quivered from pain when I tried to move my arm. A stream of pessimistic thoughts flooded my mind.
How would I free myself from that giant ice cube I found myself caught in? I pulled my body away from the wall trying to press the ice around me, hoping I could make it crack. I pushed again. And again. And again. Feeling the strength draining from my body, I stopped fighting.
“I give up,” I yelled. “You win. Whatever your purpose is, you win.”
I let my body fall exhausted against the wall, hands sprawled, legs stretched. I leaned my head against the ice-wall and closed my eyes. I was going to die there. Maybe I was not destined to live an interesting life after all. Maybe I was destined to freeze to death in a weird iced cell.
A glimpse of hope that nothing of this was real, that it was just a dream, crossed my mind; however, I felt the pain of my chest crushing under the weight of the enormous ice cube I was stuck in. I was now breathing in an abnormally deep and long way.
“I must be hyperventilating,” I muttered, and my teeth chattered in the cold. I kicked my legs and moved my hands frantically to make my muscles contract and then relax in an effort to squeeze my veins and make sure that my blood would keep traveling through my heart. I wished there was a source of heat around. There was only a frail light ray, starting from the dark ceiling and landing on the wall.
Could that be of any use? I did not have much to hope for, anyway. My wet clothes had stuck on my skin and tiny ice crystals had already started forming on my fingers, nose, and ears. My exposed skin was getting frozen, and it would soon become red and numb.
“Frostbite,” I thought to myself and moved my limps in panic. With my last drops of strength, I started slowly moving my right arm. Cracking the surface of the ice seemed impossible so I focused on sliding my hand back toward my body. My eyes almost popped out and my teeth gritted from the effort I put in. With a cracking noise, my arm slid closer to my body. The ice was cracking. And suddenly, there was hope. Another push and my arm moved even closer to my torso.
It was then when I realized that something had changed since I had become a living ice cube. The sole ray had now moved and pointed to another stop in the frozen cell. Was it a sign? Was it the key to my salvation? Or was I simply losing my mind, the last sign that I was freezing to death?
Whatever it was, whether a sign or not, that ray was my only hope. With an all-out effort, I slid my arm until I reached the landing spot of the ray.
A loud cry of horror slipped my mouth. I had just touched a human being’s face.
Was he dead? I touched his face again taking him forcibly out of his sleep.
“What took you so long?” he groaned, but then he took a better look at me. “Who the heck are you?”
He stared at me with such a horror that I cracked a smile despite my desperation and exhaustion.
“Nice to meet another ice cube,” I said. “I would shake hands with you, but it seems that you do not have any hands at all.”
“Are you a comedian?” He did not even grin. “I have been stuck in this cell for months, or should I say for years as I have really lost the sense of time, and I suddenly got covered by ice. The last thing I wish for is to watch a stand-up comedy gig.”
His entire body was trapped in the ice; only his head was out of it. He was young and his curly brown hair looked clean as if he had just washed them. How was it possible that he had been trapped in this cell for months?
“I am sorry. I did not mean to offend you,” I said calmly. “My name is Gwen and I am an Avallon Academy student. I am a Time Hoper and even though I did not use my gift without permission, I was sent here. Well, not here exactly, as I was locked in another cell. A cell made of thorns. I solved a riddle I found hidden in the thorn wall and I was transferred here.”
“So you were the reason this cell was flooded by water that then turned into ice.” He sighed. “Welcome to Thorn Prison, Gwen! I am Tristan. Are you aware of what the Thorn Prison is about?”
“I’ve never heard of it until now.” That was not entirely correct. I had heard of the Thorn Prison right before Camila disappeared and a green-white vortex sucked me in but I did not want to explain the full details to a guy I had just met.
“This is where the Board of Wizards sends mages and sorceresses who misuse their powers and the creatures who break the rules of peaceful cohabitation.”
“What kind of creatures?” I asked.
He gave me an examining look. “How long have you been in the Academy?”
“Three months. I was on my first trip off Afall Island when a vortex opened up right where I was and sucked me in.”
“So, you do not know. It is okay; little does it matter after all.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“What matters right now is to find a way to free ourselves. You said that you got into my cell after you solved a riddle. That means that there are four riddles to go.”
Merlin had indeed mentioned five riddles. Tristan seemed well informed in the mechanics of the Thorn Prison. If we joined forces, we could manage to escape.
I looked around at the cell. There was only ice, ice everywhere and no sign of the next riddle.
“There must a rune that can clear the room of the ice or something like that. There must be something. It needs to be something.”
“If there was anything else before the ice came, I would have noticed. I had plenty of time to look around,” he said.
I moved my hands again and the promising sound of cracking ice sounded again. “Do you think that we could crack the ice if we push against it together at the same time?”
We could not. We tried, but we only succeeded a few cracks in the ice.
“There has been nothing I could not break until I was locked in this prison. Steel, stone, wood... any kind of material. Nothing was unbreakable to me; to me, and anyone of my kind.”
“Of your kind?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he muttered. I am one of those beings.” Tristan’s face became dark.
“Beings? What kind of beings?”
“Beings who were once humans. People who lost the warmth of their hearts, and anger and bitterness now flow through their veins.”
My body briskly drained of the adrenaline that had surged into my system.
“Are you one of the bad people?” I asked with a knot in my throat.
“Not necessarily bad, but we are certainly not people, not anymore.”
As Tristan turned his face toward the light ray, the reflection of the ice that filled the cell glowed in his eyes.
“I do not understand. What ar
e you?”
With a sudden movement, Tristan turned his face again to me and sharp fangs were revealed beneath his thin lips. Drops of sweat rolled down my neck as he leaned closer to me. I felt numb when his cold lips touched the soft flesh of my neck where it met my shoulder. He looked hypnotized. With his sharp teeth, he scratched my skin from the ear to the trapezius muscle. An incomprehensible turmoil conquered my soul. My heart pounded fast and a small cry escaped my mouth pulling him out of his trance. As sharply as he had approached me, Tristan moved back and nailed his body at the back of the ice cube he was restrained in.
“I am sorry,” he said, bowing his head. “I did not mean to frighten you.”
Cold fear seized my limbs as I watched his sharp fangs shrink back into his oral cavity. He looked embarrassed, like a child caught stealing sweets from the sweet jar.
“Honestly, I did not mean to cause you any frustration,” he reiterated. “I have not been locked in long enough to lose my social skills.”
“It is okay,” I said quietly. “As long as you explain everything to me.”
Silence prevailed in the ice cell until Tristan emerged sharply from his thoughts and looked at me. His abrupt movement made me curl up with fear.
“We need to talk,” he said.
“As if there is anything else that we can do.”
He did not react to the irony. “I have been locked in this cell for months, but your presence here means that now time is running up against us. So please let me tell you under what circumstances I have found myself constrained in this cell. This may help us figure out how to free ourselves and get the heck out of here.”
“I am all ears.” I could not hide my irritation for his semi-attack on me. However, there was not much I could do instead of listening to his story, hoping that there would be a clue of how to solve the next riddle, or discover the key that would cast off the spell of our confinement.
A charming smile formed on his face. “You know, someone said that to me right before I was captured. If none of this makes any sense to you, you cannot even imagine how confusing it is to me.”
The Thorn Prison (Avallon Academy Book 2) Page 2
