Gaia's Secret

by Barbara Kloss

  “How did you get inside, sire?” Fleck asked.

  Sire? This was going to take some getting used to.

  “We recruited a borderline insane wizard for help,” Dad said. “Although, we can use any help getting out. You must know a way?”

  “I was going to use the main entrance.”

  “How’s that?” I was staring at Fleck now.

  Fleck looked down, embarrassed. “I thought you could pretend you have orders to take me somewhere, but that won’t work with this many people.” Fleck looked up, then, directly at my dad. “And everyone recognizes you, sire.”

  Yells echoed throughout the corridor, followed by pounding footsteps. We all froze, holding our breaths, but no one continued down our tunnel.

  “Well, we entered through a side entrance,” my dad continued, “but now that they’re aware you’re missing, that will be impossible.”

  “We have to try—before they seal the exits,” Alex said.

  The four of us ran down the corridor until we reached a much wider vein—a main passageway. A handful of armed guards shuffled past, intent in the direction from which we had come. My cell.

  I gripped Fleck’s sweaty hand. “I won’t leave you here,” I whispered in his ear.

  He nodded as the color drained from his face.

  We marched in the opposite direction, me holding on to Fleck as if he was my prisoner. It was difficult not to run, but that would give us away. Guards ran by—pushed by—none taking a second glance at us.

  This might be easier than I had thought.

  We continued until the corridor descended, lower and lower underground, ending in a narrow, domed room. Guards were peppered about, standing, chatting, and no one even glanced at us. Beyond them was a dark slit in the rock wall. An exit.

  If we could thread through the guards unnoticed, we would be free. It would be that simple.

  “There you are. I was wondering when you’d come.”

  Or maybe not.

  Lord Tiernan appeared like a shadow. Now we had the guards’ attention. Shuffling sounded behind us and I turned around to see more of them. We were trapped.

  “You didn’t honestly believe I would let you simply walk out of here with my prisoner, did you?”

  My dad stepped forward. “You.” That one word held so much loathing and disgust it seemed like the entire room recoiled.

  Lord Tiernan smiled, pulling his taught skin even tighter over the sharp bones in his face. “Who were you expecting, my prince?” His velvety voice was laden with condescension. “Unlike you, I serve the true Lord of Gaia.”

  “The true Lord of Gaia is my father, King Darius Regius,” Dad growled in a commanding tone I’d never heard. “You forgot yourself, Tiernan. My father rewarded you beyond measure for your services, and this is how you thank him.” Dad waved his hand at the men in armor now gathered all around. “Selling your soul to Mortis.” The light in the room flickered and dimmed. “You forget who you bargain with. It will be the end of you.”

  The smile on Lord Tiernan’s face fell. “You have always failed to see the world as it is. Your father is a cowardly thief just like the one he serves, exploiting the talents of others and using them against his people. I curse the days I called myself his servant,” Tiernan spat, eyes narrowed in pure hatred. “It is your ignorance that will kill you, old friend.”

  Tiernan drew two swords from beneath his cloak, one for each hand, and radiated so much power it was disorienting.

  Dad drew his own sword, and his eyes shined with a ferocity that frightened me. What was he thinking? He didn’t know how to use a sword.

  “You should’ve died years ago for your treason,” my dad said. “Today, you will pay for it.”

  Everything happened so fast that before I could figure out what they were talking about, Dad charged Lord Tiernan.

  “Dad!” I screamed. I lunged after him but was yanked back by a firm grip.

  “Leave him,” Alex said.

  I fought against his hold as I watched my dad cross blades with Lord Tiernan. “Alex, you have to help him! He can’t fight—“ My words trailed as I watched.

  I was wrong. My dad could fight, almost as well as Alex.

  Everyone’s attention was engaged in the duel as Tiernan’s spinning blades attempted to slice my dad in half. Dad always moved at the last second, delivering counter blows that were knocked to the side.

  “Close the exits!” Tiernan brandished his swords.

  A few cloaks drifted towards our exit and raised their arms. As I stared I realized they weren’t men. They were Pykans. A rock began sliding through our intended exit, sealing the narrow crevice.

  “Alex! Get her out of here,” Dad yelled, rolling away from a scissor of metal.

  Before he could finish his command, Alex was already pulling me away.

  “We can’t leave him!”

  Some of the guards turned their attention towards us now, drawing their swords.

  Two, three, four at a time charged. Alex threw me behind him and leapt into the melee. He danced around them, fast and fluid, his legs finding a face, a knee as his sword slashed through tendons and arteries. I couldn’t move, watching the sphere of death he created around himself. So much blood. So much violence.

  As I stared, I was thrown to the ground, unable to move. One of the guards had me pinned and was forcing a dagger at my face. Mustering my strength, I freed one hand, grabbed another dagger from his belt, and shoved it into his abdomen. His pain tore through my body as the force behind his dagger weakened. He toppled sideways off of me.

  “Daria!” Alex yelled.

  I heard scraping as silver flashed on the ground toward me. Alex had thrown me a dagger. Swinging out my arm, I caught the blade and shoved it into the chest of my next attacker. His dark eyes widened in surprise and pain as he rolled to his side, lifeless.

  I scrambled to my feet, fighting against the weight of the metal as my heart thudded in my ears. My blade was dripping crimson….with blood. I had killed two men. I had taken their lives. My stomach turned just as another attacked me.

  On instinct, my muscles brought the dagger around, right into the blade of my attacker with a clash. Everything around me slowed and I suddenly felt light and weightless. His movements were sluggish and predictable. Before he could reposition his sword, I spun around. Using my momentum for force, I plunged the dagger into an opening in his armor, right into the side of his ribcage. His jaw dropped as he slumped to the ground.

  Alex was staring at me in disbelief, as a sword was being lifted over his head. And he didn’t see it. I threw the dagger, and it sliced end-over-end through the air, right into the forehead of the guard. His movement froze as he and his weapon toppled to the ground.

  Alex looked behind himself in surprise and then rushed to my side, pushing and slashing at anyone between us. He jerked me away from a sword that came within inches of my abdomen. Another guard rushed towards us, but was weighed down by an anchor named Fleck. Fleck sat on the man’s feet with his arms wrapped tightly around his legs. The man realized his inhibition and raised his sword. I leapt forward, slashed across the man’s raised arm and kicked him down.

  Fleck ducked, still wrapped around the man’s legs.

  “Fleck, you’re fine. Get up.” I grabbed his arm and yanked him up beside me.

  When I looked up again, my heart dropped. There were more guards. This time, the Pykans had joined them and they’d sealed our only exit.

  A handful of the orange-eyed men began to circle us, their rotted mouths fixed in satisfaction. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a blur of brown and grey, and one of the guards fell. The blur moved again, and another guard fell—this time followed by maniacal laughter.

  “Great Mages! I can’t believe you started the fight without us,” said a voice I recognized.

  Tran appeared, flashing Alex and me a look of disapproval.

  The Pykans hissed like a brood of vipers and the blur stopped spinning. It was Grool. He
still wore his brown paper sack, but now he was wearing a helmet that was much too large for his odd-shaped head. Infuriated, he stomped on the foot of a Pykan, jabbed a wickedly shaped piece of metal into the folds of its cloak, and spun off again in a blur of silver and brown. The Pykan’s pain shot through me and its cat-like eyes narrowed as a burst of light shot from its fingertips.

  Tran met him head on. Green light pushed against blue, and sparks flew through the air as the two sorcerers dueled with a power only they could wield. Alex pushed Fleck and me to the ground just as another bolt of light shot through the space our heads had been.

  The magicians leapt into the air using the walls and heads of men to rebound. Light flashed all around as rock crumbled after it.

  Alex pulled me after him and we crawled away with Fleck right beside me.

  The remaining guards had huddled off to the side to avoid the magical avalanche. They were watching something—my dad and Tiernan.

  I took off, aware that Alex was yelling after me. My heart raced as blood pumped through my veins. I climbed on top of a small boulder that had fallen and peered over the group.

  “You’re weak, sire.” Tiernan’s swords crossed with my dad’s and he spun away. “You should’ve listened. Now she will watch you die.”

  Dad ran at Tiernan, his swords flashing through the air. I could feel his rage and power as it surged through me.

  The ground began to shake. More chunks of rock fell from the ceiling, some tumbling down on the heads of the guards. Tiernan stumbled through the debris to regain his balance. His eyes shut, his features strained, and the shaking stopped. When he opened his eyes, there was a spark of amusement in them. “Is that all?”

  Tiernan showed his teeth as his eyes glowed white. His swords fell to the ground and he stretched his arms high. A blanket of white light formed in the space between his hands and flew towards my dad. With an agonizing yell, my father dropped his swords and swung his arms outward against the enveloping wall of light. An explosion sounded; the light shattered into a million tiny crystals, falling like rain around him.

  Once the last crystal shard fell, my dad slumped forward. Tiernan saw the opportunity. He swept up his swords with a yell, and charged.

  Dad just managed to block the attack, but his back was bending from the pressure. Tiernan smiled and pressed harder. My dad’s knees buckled. One of his legs turned at an unnatural angle and his pain shot through my blood.

  “Dad!” I screamed, paralyzed in horror.

  Tiernan smiled a wicked smile, holding one sword overhead. “Goodbye, old friend.”

  My blood boiled. I didn’t remember leaping from the boulder. I didn’t remember pushing past the guards. But somehow I was standing behind Tiernan, my hand gripping the dagger that was deep in his chest.

  Tiernan froze as I retracted my weapon. His eyes widened in surprise and the swords fell from his hands, their clanging rebounding inside the silent stone chamber. He opened his mouth and screamed—the yell so horrible it turned my blood cold. And then he crumbled to the ground. All that remained was his cloak and my stolen dagger.

  The room was silent.

  I picked up my dagger and hurried to my dad’s side, still shaking. Alex pushed through the horde of shocked guards and helped me get my dad to his feet. Dad’s strength was fading fast.

  I searched in desperation for a way out, but both exits were blocked. The guards’ shock began wearing off and they started closing in on us. Rage and fury were in their eyes now. We stepped back, Alex holding on to my dad. Tran and Grool had joined us. Grool was holding an ax in his hand, gurgling strange insults at the men poised around us.

  “Keep walking.” Tran’s voice was low as he moved back to the wall.

  “Walk where?” I asked. “We’re trapped!”

  The guards crept closer, confident of their prey.

  I glanced back at my dad. His eyes were closed as he leaned against the rock wall. His features looked strained and tense and the veins around his temple were bulging. And then the ground began to tremble. Violently.

  I grabbed Fleck and pulled him to me as I huddled over my father. Huge pieces of rock fell from the top of the dome, crashing all around—many of the boulders falling between the guards and us.

  The wall right behind us began to split. I clutched Fleck’s hand as we ducked. Large chunks of the cave crashed down behind us. A few plummeted towards our heads, but right before impact, they exploded into millions of tiny shards—all with a wave of Tran’s hand. At once the crashing ceased and the room returned to silence.

  I lifted my head. The wall next to us had split so that it formed a tunnel, and at its end was a narrow thread of light. My dad slumped to the ground.

  Alex was already hoisting Dad up on his feet.

  “Hurry!” yelled Tran, pushing us through the new exit.

  We sprinted. Grool ran after us, dropping things on the ground while laughing at himself.

  Tran led us forward through the dark tunnel. The soft light grew brighter and brighter, and the scent of damp air grew stronger. Enraged voices shouted behind us. The Pykans were already blasting the blockage into oblivion. We didn’t have much time. Once they destroyed the rock barrier, we’d never outrun them. Not with my dad in this state.

  It felt like forever before the narrow tunnel ended and we were dumped on the sandy beach of an alcove. Our tunnel was at the base of a steep, rocky cliff that curved in a semicircle into the ocean. Rain poured down upon us from the dark clouds above and large white-capped waves crashed along the shore, desperately trying to reach us.

  I had no idea where we were, but I knew we were far from Lake Amadis.

  Tran kept us running straight for a narrow crevice in the rock, and we were soon stumbling out of the alcove.

  The army emerged from the crack in the side of the rocky cliff. They were livid, gripping their weapons as they ran. Bursts of light fired at us with renewed vigor, and we ran. And ran.

  “Grool, now!” I heard Tran yell from somewhere ahead.

  The ground began to shake and the air filled with loud explosions. Flames consumed the cavern, pouring out of its crack, reaching bright orange fingers towards the sky. The explosions continued, fire and smoke reaching higher and higher, until the cliff began to implode upon itself.

  When I looked back at Tran, I couldn’t find him. Or Grool.

  “Up here!” shouted Cicero.

  At first I couldn’t figure out where the sound came from, but then I looked up.

  You aren’t going crazy…you aren’t going crazy…

  Cicero and Sonya were flying. They were sitting on the backs of velvety black creatures that looked like horses, but their necks were longer, arching outward from their extraordinary muscular bodies. And they had wings. Enormous, black wings.

  “Mom, here.” Alex helped Fleck climb on with Sonya.

  If I hadn’t been so concerned about the armed guard chasing us, there was no way I’d trust my dad on that thing. Cicero helped pull my dad on with him, and Alex threw me on a third rider-less creature and climbed in front of me.

  “Hold on!” he yelled over his shoulder and I just managed to wrap my arms around his waist as we took off into the air.

  Rain and wind slapped my face as we soared upward, higher and higher. I tried not to look down. I tried not to look anywhere. My grip around Alex was so tight, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to ever break it loose.

  I could hear the men screaming after us. A few stray beams of light shot past, but our winged horses swerved easily out of the way. The guards became smaller and smaller as we soared farther and farther away.

  Just as I felt that overwhelming relief of survival, a blood-curdling shriek pierced the air.

  I glanced back. Three creatures rose from the flames and ruin, flying through the air towards us. Gargons. So the rumors were true. These were what had been wreaking havoc on villages. These beasts were spitting images of the drawing I’d seen in Tran’s monsters manual. They had be
en frightening enough on paper, but they were horrifying in real life.

  “Gargons!” I yelled at Alex.

  “I see them!”

  Their sleek reptilian bodies sliced through the sky like black darts as their powerful wings beat against the wind. Those fiery red eyes burned with hunger as their soul-splitting wails ripped through the air.

  “Take Daria ahead,” Cicero yelled. “We’ll distract them.”

  Sonya was already reaching for her bow. Before I could blink, the dark green and silver feathers shot through the air, sinking deep into the skull of one of the creatures. It shrieked and blew hot steam as it clawed at the air, unable to bat its wings. Gravity took it then, pulling it down like a stone falling through the air.

  Another took a swipe at Sonya. Her horse dove, missing the gargon’s claw by a thread. Cicero threw one of his daggers and missed, but provided enough of a distraction for Sonya to restring her bow and loose another powerful arrow. With a shriek the beast tried to dislodge the point from its chest, its wings unable to keep it airborne.

  Two down. One left. But this one was faster.

  Sonya shot arrow after arrow, each missing by a hair. Cicero flew near enough to slash with his blade, but the gargon raked at him, sending him, my dad, and their winged horse spinning through the air away from us.

  Infuriated, the gargon shot forward, intent on Alex and me. Sonya and Cicero were far behind now, trying with everything they had to catch up. The beast was too quick. The distance between us was closing fast.

  “We have to go faster!” I yelled.

  “This is as fast as it gets!”

  “Can’t you do something?”

  “You drive.”

  Before I could ask, Alex was climbing over me.

  Air screamed past my ears and my wet hair stung my face. The sound of the gargon’s beating wings grew louder. It was so close I could feel its hot breath. Alex held on to me with one arm, his other clutching his sword as I tried to give him the stability he needed to do whatever it was he had planned.

  The gargon swiped, but its claws were deflected by Alex’s blade. Its teeth came down on us and our horse dropped before those powerful jaws could trap us inside. The next time it clawed at Alex, it took his sword with it.