"My little brother got kidnapped a while back. He's safe now, but it never made the news in Arco. With as hard as we tried to get it publicized, no one would report on it. Squadron raided our house at least four times during those five months. They told us it was none of our concern. To stop the search. They were in control of the matter. They had black eyes, just like the ones that raided the Pavilion. I'm not in on it, Anvard." He looked at him from the other side of the tree trunk. The tears he wiped were gone, but new ones showed up to replace the others. They fell faster than he could brush them away. "I'm really not in on anything ... but I want to be. Whatever the 8ights Council is doing with Squadron affected more families than just yours, Corinth. My little brother is mixed too. My dad died, when I was young, about eight years ago. My mom remarried pretty fast. My brother had his sixth birthday, just before I left to come back to school. Like I said, he's fine, but I know other people aren't. I heard about your story, Corinth. It was online when school started back up. A small site, really just randomly speaking out on conspiracy theories. It's gone now. Not just the article about you. But the entire site is gone. It's like it was never there. And so is every trace that my brother was ever missing."
Anvard was the most bewildered by Lindle’s words. He didn't know what he was talking about in reference to Corinth.
"I don't think there will be any more kidnappings, Lindle. I'm pretty sure that I was the one they were looking for. Not your little brother or any of the possible others." Corinth hoped that would help ease Lindle’s distressed appearance.
Lindle thought it made perfect sense, but still wanted in. He wiped a few more stray tears away while saying, "I know a lot about mythology too. I might be able to help."
Anvard and Corinth looked to each other simultaneously. They made a joint decision without speaking. Lindle was now a part of the team.
Chapter 23:
Ascending Through The North Lake
May 23, 1002 ~ Nightfall
They made it all way over to the rusty gates of the Northern Coaster station. There was a warning sign posted on it in red.
Coaster Under Construction! Not Available Till Next Semester!
Corinth walked up to the gate and tore the caution tape away. "If you want out, Lindle, just say so." He seemed different. More in control than usual.
Lindle was inspired by Corinth’s blind courage. Still reluctant, but ready to push past it. "I'm fine. If the Coaster was broken they would have locked the gate, right?"
Anvard was beginning to tire of everyone second-guessing themselves. "Let's just go. We're already here after all." He charged forward, walking passed Corinth up the short flight of metal stairs. His loafers clanked each step up to the landing.
He looked around as he paraded through. The tunnel up ahead that led to the coaster looked dingy and unkept. Weeds had taken root. They lined the walls, making it look as if they'd exit on the other side into a dense forest, and not a high tech rail system. He grabbed up one of the veins running along the walls between his fingers and sniffed.
"What are you doing?" Corinth said from behind him.
Anvard didn't bother turning to him. "I'm trying to tell how old these are."
Corinth didn’t exactly understand how sniffing around like a hound dog would provide any information, but he decided to just roll with it.
"What's your buddy doing up there?" Lindle said while trying to keep pace with Corinth and Andy.
"I don't know," Corinth said without a clue. "I've learned to just let it happen. He likes to be in charge. He's probably making some decision that he thinks is really important, even though it's most likely not."
Lindle laughed loudly. Anvard stopped suddenly, and looked back to them. "Sound waves travel smoother through narrow spaces. In other words, I heard you both loud and clear. So there’s no need to whisper anymore if you're going to keep insulting me."
"I was just joking!" Corinth tried plotting his way back into Anvard's good graces. "You really are pretty smart, you know?"
Instead of feeling smart, Anvard's facial expression showed all that he didn't know. He had no idea why he let this unfit journey progress this far. He started second-guessing not only himself, but also the integrity of their mission. He wanted to put an end to this unnecessary quest. But before he could talk Corinth down from the high of getting the answers he desperately sought— their situation changed drastically.
The gates they just walked through closed hard behind them!
"Get down!" Anvard shouted at the both of them. Immediately they took cover. They dropped to ground, as Andy dropped to one knee. He tossed his llave forward. "Annihilate," he said it more calmly than expected.
He was sure it'd knock down the suspicious gate, ensuring that they wouldn't be locked inside the tunnel. But what he didn't anticipate was that a new feature had been built onto the brick tunnel. A Valid Steel sheet came crushing down over the mouth of the tunnel. His Annihilate spell ricocheted off the strongest metal known to man on an angle. The metal was so perfectly refined that you could see your reflection in it. It deflected his attack, like a beam of light refracted through a magnifying glass. Only this beam wasn't going through. It came streaking back toward Anvard. He thrust his body up, instead of further down, while sidestepping toward the left. He flattened his toned physique against the side of the tunnel walls to get out of the way. The beam struck the ceiling just a few yards away from his head.
Rocks came tumbling down. The tunnel looked like it'd cave in, right over his head. Quickly, Corinth got up from his crouched position, and pulled a stunned Anvard away to what safe distance he could manage. The big oaf didn't budge easy, but Corinth got him to stumble back, away from the incoming wreckage. Anvard fell on top of the little guy—hard.
"Owww!" he shouted. "You're not as light as you to think you are. Get off of me!" Corinth pushed and pushed. Anvard couldn't take his eyes off the rocks. He froze. That wasn't good. "Anvard!!!" Corinth leaned up and yelled directly into his ear from behind.
He snapped out of whatever it was about the cave in that transfixed him so. "Sorry." He got up fast, and turned to give Cory a hand. They dusted themselves off as Lindle nervously brushed up behind Corinth.
"Hey! Calm down," Corinth said to him. Then turned around swiftly and smacked Lindle's two overly familiar hands away from his neck. "What are you doing?" he shouted at the curly haired geek.
"The book," Lindle awkwardly started. "It's fragile. We can't have all that knowledge being lost because of a freak accident."
Corinth knew he had the Fate Forgery, as well the holographic map, secured in his backpack. The book was heavy enough that he couldn't possibly forget it. "Hey, if you care about it that bad, then let’s switch." He gestured for Lindle to give him his side shoulder pouch.
"Uh, sure that sounds cool." He didn't actually want the responsibility of carrying the large thing. But he figured his mouth wrote that check, so he'd might as well make it out to cash. He took the bag with a lofty sense of hesitation, and Corinth gave it up without any at all.
Corinth wondered why Anvard hadn't offered to take it from him. That was his usual stance. To make everything easier on Corinth.
"Wow!" Lindle flipped the straps of the backpack onto his back and the weight made his back crack. "What was that all about?" he asked, changing the subject back to their cave in situation.
"Well," Corinth started, "it would have just been an accident, if somebody hadn't gone all superhero on us and used a spell that's trapped us in here." He motioned to the rocks blocking their path ahead and then back to the Valid Steel wall that kept them from turning back.
Anvard was preoccupied with otherthoughts, but he figured the sooner he shut these two up, the better. "First, we're not trapped. We've been inconvenienced, that's all. Second, the gate and that wall were no accidents. Look at the material, I’d say it’s Valid Steel." He gestured back toward the steel wall. "Someone's got it out for us. They want us to keep forward."
"You think it's Walker, don't you?" Corinth sounded disappointed, like Walker hadn't tried to poison him just a day ago. Though no one was sure whether that was true or not. Especially Corinth.
"I don't care if it's Walker or God even. I know it's not good either way. If we go forward we’re headed right into their hands."
Corinth seemed agitated. "We didn't come out here expecting to find nothing. There was supposed to be something or even someone there all along. They have my uncle for crying out loud!"
"And who exactly is they?" Anvard barked. "You mean Walker, right? Your best friend, who apparently wants you dead!" He was feeling the heat too. He went along with this bad idea to please Corinth, but now it was becoming real. Too real.
"No!" Corinth countered. "They don't want me dead! They want my power, you idiot!" He covered his mouth quickly. He didn't mean to breathe a word of what he just said. Including calling Andy an idiot. "I'm sorry, you’re not stupid—I am!” Corinth added quickly,“I don't even know what I'm doing." He turned, walking past a confused looking Lindle.
Anvard felt worse than he did. He didn't fully understand what was running through Corinth's mind, but he knew enough. Not about Corinth's personal experiences, but generally about psychics. They're almost always troubled people. And Corinth apparently had a stalker trying to snatch him up. Anvard wouldn't know what to do if his life were ever in a danger like that. He just froze in front of some lifeless rocks. He didn't have the steel trapped mind he thought he had under pressure. At least not always. What a thing, steel-trap, considering that's exactly what they're sealed up in.
"Corinth," Anvard called, "we'll go forward. But we have to be careful. I don't want anything to happen to you. Not even a -scratch.” Corinth turned to him and smiled. That's how Andy preferred to see his little friend. Bright and happy.
"What about me?" Lindle looked between the star-crossed friends and felt a cold chill come over him. And he knew neither of them could pull themselves away from each other long enough to throw a little warmth his way.
"Yeah, I'm not so concerned about you, Curly!" Anvard grinned widely, but he kind of meant it. They laughed through the scary possibility that they were trapped inside the tunnel to the coaster station.
"How are we going to get out of here?" Corinth asked.
"The same way we intended. We're not trapped, we're...."
"We know, inconvenienced," Corinth and Lindle spoke together, like twins.
Anvard rolled his eyes and gingerly walked over to the pile of rubble that nearly buried him alive a moment ago. "Aufero In Salium Terra." He waved the hand holding his llave across the stones and one by one, they displaced themselves. The salts of the earth repositioned themselves, revealing a tight, but passable passage.
Lindle was quite amazed by the sight. He wasn't so used to meeting fourteen-year-olds that knew so many spells in Maledictus. "Do you only wield in the cursed language?
Anvard didn't bother to turn to him. The path was clearing, but he felt like he'd need a bigger opening to fit his own stocky shoulders through. He focused on that, but answered the question no less. "If I hadn't cast that Annihilate we wouldn't be in here. We'd be on the coaster. Probably half way into the nice comfy trap we're willingly making our way to. That's English, ain't it?"
Lindle looked at the gray stone ceiling of the tunnel. "Oh yeah, you're right. But still, you're an amazing wielder!" He seemed genuinely excited about Anvard's talent. "Maybe you can teach..."
"Look!" he said abruptly, derailing Lindle from his train of thought. Andy wasn't in the mood for selfish thinking. He figured Corinth had the aisle stocked to capacity with this obsessively selfish quest of his. "Let's just do what we're doing. Try to stay alive, and work the rest out later." He turned to them both once he realized he couldn't bend the rocks any further. "You guys don't seem to be taking this very serious. But it is! That door was put there to lock us in. I've been up here before. I've gone farther north than either of you. Granted, it was on a hiking trip with my family, but I still went." He pointed a finger of certainty at them, letting them know that he knew more than they did. "I've seen things up here that would blow your little minds. That's why I believe in dreams and a lot of the myths. But this isn't some summer hike across the fertile mountainsides. We have no guide. We don't even know where we're going. And now we have a guarantee that someone or something is watching us. Luring us to it." He was tired of trying to hold everything together since he met Corinth. He had his own insecurities and problems to deal with. But somehow, Corinth always came first. "You just have to be more aware of your surroundings. We have no choice in the matter now. We go forward, but with an imbued sense of caution."
Corinth looked back to Lindle, when Anvard turned back to the narrow tunnel he created. Corinth eked out of his throat as quietly as possible to Lindle, "what's‘imbued’ mean?" Lindle just shrugged and they both followed Andy through the marginal opening toward the platform of the coaster station.
They twisted their bodies to the side. With their backs and hands against either wall, they took one step at a time, pushing their way through left over debris, while dust from above fell onto their heads. This made them all feel rather claustrophobic. Anvard had a good sense of it, but now he surely knew how Vonczech felt during the Levantarse game. It was tight. Almost too tight for the leading man to fit through. Anvard found himself stuck between a rock and a very hard place. His muscles started to tighten, and he started to freak out. Panting the way Oliveto did when Corinth didn't give him enough water. The big boy hyperventilated in front of them. He couldn't breathe, his throat started closing up as he clenched his own neck with one hand.
"Spirant Facilis," Lindle whispered from behind Corinth. He wanted Anvard to be able to breathe easy, but his clever spell didn't work, as he wasn’t very good at wielding in the cursed language.
"My god, I can't .... I can't! My chest!" He started twisting back and forth trying to move back in the direction they just came from.
"Anvard, wait!" Corinth shouted. But Anvard pushed so hard that his foot and shoulder both shifted out of their fixed position between the walls that pressed against all of their backs and chest.
He slammed into Corinth when he lost what little balance he had. Their heads knocked against one another's like coconuts. But there was no room to fall down. There was more space back the way they came, but still not enough for Anvard to get pass, unless he cleared the way somehow. He was in full panic mode now. He tried to climb over a leaning Corinth as he drifted in and out, with unfocused vision. Anvard's bolt like head was no soft tool, so the force overwhelmed Corinth. Anvard, too, could barely see, he was so overwhelmed by the onslaught of fear creeping through his mind. Corinth's small body seemed to shimmy its way down to the floor of the man made crevice they huddled in. He laid there on the floor as Anvard literally stepped on him, trying to pass in a panic.
Corinth slowly came back to reality after the strike of their two heads, but somehow with a new focus he never experienced before. His world seemed to slow down and become very poignant. But he wouldn't let the regret of dragging the two of them with him into this mess keep him from accomplishing his mystified goal. He just knew it in his head. He couldn't put it into words that the others could understand, but there was something waiting for him out there in the Angora Mountains. Something that had been waiting longer than Walker roamed the earth. He knew this was bigger than he was, and couldn't simply be ignored. He wanted Anvard, at the very least, to be able to understand the sensation incessantly dominating his thoughts since he was reunited with his parents. He'd been feeling like he was chasing an elusive idea from the beginning of it all.
He grabbed Anvard's passing leg, and opened his mind to him. Time stopped for a moment between them. Lindle was trying his absolute best to back away, but the sight of a charging Anvard scared him so—that he got jammed up in the limited space around him. While Lindle fought to regain control over his movement, the other two felt each other in
a way they never could have if Corinth weren't a budding psychic himself, and now an increasingly profound fraction of the entire Nexus.
Anvard's veins popped out from beneath his skin. They coursed with his blood flowing faster than ever before. His petrified face was frozen in shock. He welled up with tears in his widened, bloodshot eyes. Those tears rolled down the center of his face into his broadly opened mouth. In an instance, he felt every emotion Corinth ever experienced. Every lonely thought. Every fleeting urge. They were all now a part of his mind as well. He realized that Corinth always felt like he was trapped between a rock and a hard place. Not just in day-to-day living, but in his very own mind too. There was no escape for him. He had to go forward with this plan. Anvard could feel it the way Corinth felt it. He knew now, and understood why Corinth couldn't explain it before. The knowledge soothed him. It calmed him to the point that he ceased all frantic activity, and just let the tears stream.
<*>
Anvard blasted the rocks with an Annihilate, while using a Vis Aura to protect himself and the others from debris. He didn't want to try fitting through again. They finally reached the open mouth of the coaster station, but things weren't exactly looking up for them. The coaster looked old and out of order. Lindle inspected it as Corinth and Andy sat on a railing of the platform that separated them from the tracks. It looked like they were in a train station. A very dusty, dingy train station. The coaster wasn't exactly a train, but it worked like one. One difference being that it was openly exposed to the outside. Not always, but more times than not. They noticed all the railcars were exposed, no hoods in sight. They wanted to take a single cart, but they were all connected to one another. They looked around for tools, but found nothing. They'd have to take the whole darn row, if they even still wanted to get across.
Original Souls (A World Apart #1) Page 41
