by Elissa Daye
“We have a lot of work to do, Julius. But rest assured, if there is anything you know to be true, it’s this; I will not stop until we bring him home.”
Chapter 33
Lyssa spent the next two days continuing to hop from portal to portal. She returned to places she’d already seen and visited new ones that had never been entered, but she was having a difficult time tracking down Hunter. She knew his energy levels were low because he was in and out of consciousness, but she could still feel his presence. Every time she entered the Land of the Shadows, she felt another piece of herself slip away, but she pushed through it.
Her dreams at night were filled with him, as somehow reaching her soul out to him seemed easier in the world of sleep. Lyssa could see the cave quite distinctly, the rugged edges of stone jutting out carelessly around him. Sometimes a few torches were burning inside the cave, but when the light was burning, the shadows were missing. She could see members of the Craven taking their turns interrogating Hunter with their fists, chains, and belts. Lyssa woke up screaming many times, as her body took in the images that her soul was seeing. He was in living hell every day, and yet the strength of his pure will kept him alive. They had to find him soon.
She sat at the globe in the library and held the locket in her right hand. Lyssa put her left hand on the globe and sent her mind to probe for his spirit. She kept waiting to feel his presence, but it was just not coming to her. Slamming her fist on the table, she dropped the locket onto the globe. Tears sprang to her eyes, for it was getting hard to hold them inside. Lyssa was losing faith in her ability to find him, and the whole prospect started to feel bleaker each day.
She watched as the locket was pulled along with the spinning globe. Lyssa went to grab it before it got caught between the wooden table and where the globe curved into it. As she reached for the locket, it raced across the globe in the opposite direction. She jumped out of her seat and watched closely as it zipped back and forth across the globe, almost as if some magnetic pull was powering it. Then suddenly, it stopped and stood straight up on one area of the globe, with the bottom of the locket touching the globe and the strands of the necklace streaming through the air, waving much like the tentacles of a jellyfish. She sat there transfixed by the moment, almost afraid to reach out and disturb the locket. Clearly, Hunter wanted her to find him, and somewhere inside her, she knew she had to find him as soon as possible.
Lyssa picked up the locket, placed it in her pocket, and went to change into her dark clothing. She would scope out the area first; then, she would ask the others to join her. She took extra care to ground herself in white light before she traveled there.
Lyssa closed her eyes, pictured the spot on the map, and moved quickly through the air. When her feet touched the ground, she opened her eyes quickly. Running a finger over the locket, she imagined Hunter’s face. Her only hope was that they would get to him fast enough. She took in the atmosphere around her. Lyssa was surrounded by hedges that were so tall she could not see over them. She put her hand out and touched them to see where they separated, but she could not tell where one hedge started, and the other ended. From what she could tell, it seemed to be a hedge maze.
The locket was almost burning a hole through her pocket. She pulled it out, and Hunter’s energy yanked on it, making her feel like she was walking an oversized dog. She followed the silvery leash as it led her around one corner, then another. Soon, she was running through the maze, dodging branches protruding from some of the untended hedges and trying not to swallow dusty cobwebs. This maze was clearly not one that was used often. When she turned right, she could not only feel the portal; she could actually see it. This portal was definitely different from the others. It did not have the same shadow signature at all. This felt more like the Craven. It was easy to assume Hunter was being held in the Land of the Shadows, and if that were the case, her initial desire to scout it out by herself would simply not be logical. Lyssa had to go back to the Watch Tower to get the others. That’s all there was to it.
After teleporting back, Lyssa called the other members of Sector Four. She had not expected to see Logan appear with the others, but this time he did, and his face was extremely nervous and agitated.
“Logan?”
Lyssa had not seen him in months, and he was definitely not the same man she had once known. Gone were the innocent locks framing his face. His hair now stood up like straight spikes from his head. The brown color was now a dark black with reddened tips. His unmarked face now held piercings that would never have fit him before. The others were looking at him too. It was unusual for him to conference with them. Most of his dealings with the Craven were reported to Julius, and then Julius would report his findings to them.
“Hunter is in danger. If you don’t get to him as soon as humanly possible, they are going to make me kill him.” Logan looked at her strangely, as if seeing her for the first time. If he sensed anything different about her, he didn’t comment.
“If they can’t get to him, you must keep your cover at all costs,” Julius answered him quietly.
Lyssa felt as if a sentence had been handed down by a Superior Court Judge. It was so final. If she did not save Hunter today, he would be lost to her. She would never forgive Julius if they did not get to him fast enough. “What the hell? Seriously? How could you say that? All life is important, Julius. If we knowingly let him die, we are breaking our own directive, and I might add that makes us no better than the darkness we are fighting against.”
“Don’t worry, Lyssa. I wouldn’t let that happen anyway. If I have to break my cover, I will, but I am definitely going to need back up as soon as possible.”
“Then we better do everything we can now.” It came out more like a threat than anything else. They did not want to deal with her if they let Hunter die.
“He’s being guarded by a handful of shadows and a dozen Craven. You will need to bring reinforcements. Unfortunately, I can’t stay here. If I do, then they will know I had something to do with your arrival.” They all nodded to Logan. He looked at Lyssa one last time before he teleported from the room.
“Let’s summon some of the others and get this moving then.” Julius looked over at her with at least an ounce of regret for his decisions.
Lyssa nodded at him. “I know where the portal is. Hunter has been leading me to it today. He must know what’s going on around him. We’ll have to go as soon as we can.”
Julius quickly flipped a switch from the table, and a television screen came down from the ceiling. He pushed a few buttons, and they were now looking at four different panels on the screen. Each panel held the communications room from another sector of the Watch Tower.
“We need help rescuing Hunter. It won’t be an easy fight, but if we don’t go as soon as possible, his life will be forfeit.”
“Here is where the portal is located.” Lyssa pointed to the spot the locket had marked on the map. “We’ll have to go through a maze to get through the portal. I can lead the way. We’ll need to leave at once.”
“Do you have your jump point?” Julius asked them, and when they all nodded in affirmation, he nodded his head. “Let’s move out.”
Their wands were already drawn as they teleported away from the Watch Tower. Close to twenty Guardians stood at the entrance of the maze. She let the locket lead her, much as before, and they started their chase through the maze. When they reached the portal, she put her hand up. “We should go in a few at a time.”
Lyssa walked through the portal and was instantly whisked away to a new destination. She felt her feet hit the ground and stepped to the side quickly to allow for anyone else to enter while she quickly took in her surroundings. There were stone walls in every direction…some behind her, in front of her, and at every side. When she looked up, she even saw the sky was lined with endless walls. This was so much more than the maze they had exited…this was a world filled with
the twisted walls of a labyrinth that was going to be a nightmare to get through. She felt the energy around her covered in a murky warning that something dangerous could happen at any corner, and it made it all that more real to her. Hunter was definitely in danger.
When all of them were finally through the portal, Julius turned to the group. “I know you are thinking that we might have better odds of getting through this if we split up, but I think we are better served if we stay together.”
“Do you think they’re expecting us?” asked Serena.
“I think we should assume anything is possible at this point,” Julius answered.
“He’s right. Safety in numbers. You never know what might be around the corner.” Lyssa felt the locket’s energy vibrate in her hand, and it distracted her from the strange magnetic pull that filled her body. She held onto the clasp and waited for it to direct them through to Hunter, hoping to make it through to him before having another unfortunate episode. If she had to guess, this labyrinth was going to take some effort to get through. If they had already known the terrain, teleporting closer to Hunter would be no problem, but without that knowledge teleporting to him could be disastrous.
They walked in silence, but the eerie quiet surrounding them did not make her feel safe at all. The absence of sound was anything but serene and did nothing to calm the nerves racing through her body. She followed the locket’s pull from corner to corner, and when she made the next turn, she heard a screech like she had never heard before. Lyssa stopped in her tracks and peered just around the corner. The path was covered in animated, statuesque beings. She could not tell what they were because they were still quite a distance away. She gestured to the others to take a peek and waited for a group consensus.
“We have no idea what those things will do to us.”
When it sounded like the group would be gridlocked until someone volunteered to find out, she stuck her chin out defiantly. “Fine. You wait here. I’ll figure it out then. Hunter’s life is in the balance.”
She teleported right in front of the beings and immediately cast an energy shield around her. The statues turned to face her, and she found herself staring into the face of a stone gargoyle with fangs that were moving menacingly in her direction. The stone creaked as the gargoyle stretched its wings.
When light started to fill its eyes to a haunting green glow, she knew she was about to be attacked. As it rose into the air, the stone keeping it in its place cracked into chunks that now rolled on the ground. The heavy wings rose and fell in the air, making large whooshing sounds. The green light shot forth from its eyes like a laser, and she raised her wand to deflect it. The rays ricocheted into the wall to her right and seared a hole through the cement.
When it tried to attack her with its eyes one more time, blast after blast of light flew past her ears at it. She ducked her head to give the Guardians room to attack while sending a few of her own blasts at it. The beast exploded into dust in front of her, and she took a deep breath of relief. Lyssa couldn’t help feeling that this had been cutting it a little close, but she saw Hunter’s face in her mind, and she knew that they had to push on.
When she walked another few feet, she heard more rustling to her left side. When she looked up, five more gargoyles were flapping their leaden wings as they flew noisily toward them. She ducked as green flashes of light shot at her and teleported back to where the rest of her group was standing. She felt a red hot sting on her arm, and when she looked down, she could see where one of the gargoyles had just barely hit her with their beam. She shrugged off the pain and continued to send every bit of energy she could at them. Another Guardian doubled over in pain as a blast seared through her shoulder, but she, too, continued to fight through the pain, until very gargoyle had finally been obliterated into ash in front of them.
Lyssa ripped off a piece of her shirt and tied it around her wound. She was not going to let it slow her down. The Guardian, who had been hit, was losing a lot of blood.
“You should go back. You’re no good to us if we have to worry about you.” Julius put a hand on her shoulder, and she nodded in agreement before teleporting away. “We move.”
Lyssa held the locket out once again and mentally pleaded for it to lead her to Hunter. She felt the same pull she had before and continued to follow wherever it was leading her. She walked at least another mile before she felt the tugging chain start to pull twice as hard and then fall. “We can’t wait anymore. I’m teleporting.”
“Wait, Lyssa. You don’t know where you’re going.”
“I don’t care, Julius. We’re running out of time. His energy is getting weaker every minute we walk through this mess.”
“Yes, but you’ll be putting him at risk. Logan said we had some time. We’ll get there.”
“I’m going, Julius.”
“I forbid it, Lyssa. Your life is just as important. And it’s what Hunter would want too.”
“Screw that!” Lyssa moved through the air before Julius could stop her, and landed on the edge of an opening. She sent a message to them, telling them what she saw. There are twelve guards and eight shadows surrounding Hunter. Logan is there, and he is carrying an athame over to Hunter. Come to me, and hurry!
The Craven guarding Hunter detected the Guardians as soon as they teleported next to her, and started to attack them. The Guardians retaliated in kind. Blast after blast of energy was thrown toward the Craven standing in front of Hunter. The tallest man turned to Logan. “Kill him, now!” Logan barely looked in their direction as he raised his hands with the athame over Hunter’s head.
“No!” The scream came from the most horrified part of her. Lyssa knew that Logan would not attack him, but she could not guarantee that the man standing next to him wouldn’t. She sailed through the air faster than she ever had and crouched down by Hunter’s side just moments before the blade came down toward him. Lyssa saw Hunter wish her away, but she refused to budge. Her shield was up so fast the blade did not have a chance to reach either of them. It bounced off it, and she raised her wand, firing off a bolt of light that sent Logan reeling. She knew she had not sent enough at him to kill him, but she had sent enough energy so as not to make them suspicious of his connection to the Watch Tower. Lyssa held onto Hunter and continued to shield him as the Guardians made their best attempt at taking down the shadows and Craven swarming around them.
Four of the Guardians were seriously injured before the Craven ducked out of sight, but they had taken out at least half of the group that had been left watching Hunter. Lyssa watched as the others knelt in front of their wounded while she tried to help Hunter to his feet. He grimaced in pain as she touched a bruised rib, but he managed to smile at her just the same. They stood around the black orb that was just barely breaking the surface of the ground. It took them an instant to shatter it between them, and then the world around them was finally at peace. Most of it, at least. The moment they had started to attack the orb, Lyssa’s feet almost buckled beneath her. She hid it well by kneeling on the ground. As soon as the smoke settled, they started teleporting away.
Chapter 34
After getting Hunter settled into their hospital wing at the Watch Tower, she made her way back to their library. Julius was sitting there with several other Guardians. Lyssa cleared her throat as she entered the room.
“Lyssa. Join us, please.”
“Of course.” She sat down at the table and tried not to look uncomfortable. Lyssa felt bad that some of the Guardians had been injured on their mission to save Hunter. She also wondered if they had caught on to her dilemma. The more she entered the portals, the worse her health started to become. Lyssa now knew that the shard was siphoning her life, the way that it did the lost souls within the Land of the Shadows. She knew she should probably tell them, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
“They have been telling me about their findings from one of the portals you’
ve located. You will be interested to hear what they have found.”
Lyssa turned to face the others and gave them her closest attention. “Please do tell.”
Rodger, an older Guardian, was the first to answer. “When we entered the portal, we were surprised to find the world was very simple. We were let out above a ridge that overlooked a huge clearing that reminded me vaguely of an empty battlefield. In the center of the clearing was an encampment of Craven and shadows that were guarding the largest orb we have seen to date.”
“This orb was different from the others,” Jacob added. “It was clear, almost like a glass bead, and a black smoky substance was floating around in it. As we watched, the shadows extracted some of this material from it. It streamed through the air and began to circle around quickly before forming orbs that we can only assume are the obsidian orbs that we have been destroying.”
“If what you are telling me is accurate, I would feel comfortable saying that this orb could be the source of their power,” interrupted Julius.
“You think this orb may be behind the powers of both the shadows and the Craven?” Lyssa looked at Julius. It was possible that by destroying this orb, there was a very good chance that they could defeat these two powers once and for all, and maybe reverse the cycle of damage done to Lyssa in the process. She pursed her lips in concentration as she was running various scenarios of outcomes through her head. “If this is the case, you can bet that more Craven and shadows will be summoned the moment our people attack. They would need the full force of the Watch Tower behind them.”
“Okay, so when do we attack?”
“First, we will need to organize our attack. We’ll need to counsel with the leaders of the Watch Tower.”
“We need to be quick, Julius. They are surely working out other ways to attack our world. If we don’t take care of this situation soon, it will be more difficult to manage,” Rodger added to the conversation.
