The Obsidian Crown of the Lost Dominion

by Akira Knightley

  The present-Hailey and Taylor stepped out from behind the bookcases and the three of us recited the convergence incantation.

  As we finished the third iteration, as if like smoke, the images of our old selves in a state of agitation and panic when we rushed into the room started to fade away as our present selves took over the timeline. We were all looking at Kieran’s body on the floor wondering what would happen when the alive-Kieran runs into the room. From outside, in the hallway, we heard his voice. I was reminded that the next thing in the original timeline that happened would be a white light and then a bang, then the door opens and Kieran stumbles in mortally wounded. Then Blaise gets to the door and gets hit from behind.

  We needed to help Blaise and Kieran. I looked at Hailey and Taylor and they were still in a haze from the convergence. The doctor was too far away. Despite still feeling dazed, it occurred to me I was the only one who could act and act fast. I opened the door and ran out; there in the brightness of the white light, I saw Kieran’s face. But the light made it too hard to keep my eyes open. I ran towards Kieran’s direction. I grabbed hold of his clothes and tackled him towards the side of the wall. BANG! I felt the heat of the fireball as it whizzed by. It missed him!

  “Kieran, get down and crawl your way back to the library. Did you hear me? Do you understand? And keep your eyes closed! Don’t look inside the library! Do not stand up. You must crawl!”

  “Y-y-yes, yes-s, crawl back, don’t look,” Kieran said while nodding vigorously.

  I tried to open my eyes, to see if I could find Blaise, but I was still blinded from the fireball. I decided to wait in the darkness with my back against the wall. A few moments later, I heard footsteps. I opened my eyes slightly and saw Blaise came hurtling through from within the darkness on the front side of the hall. There were flashes of light, then another blinding light. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I was blind but I knew the library was behind me. I could turn back now. Blaise is a horrible person. I don’t need to save him. Besides, it’s not like he was going to die. He was just going to get burns. This was payback time for accusing me earlier.

  But I thought better of it. That is not who I am. I calmed myself and relied on my senses. I felt his presence more than anything else. I soon felt him in front of me. I shoved Blaise as hard as I could to the other side, knocking the wind out of him as he yelled, “They’re here!” The fireball whizzed overhead and then BANG! It slammed itself on the door. A little fire was burning on the wood. I checked Blaise’s shoulder. This time only part of his jacket caught on fire. I took off my jacket, threw it over Blaise, and put it out.

  I said in a low tone, “You’re ok. You’re ok. But you need to crawl to the library and keep your eyes closed.”

  “Thank you,” he said, nodding and touching the part of his shoulder that was originally burnt but not this time. He started to crawl to the library.

  I started to crawl back to the library. I followed Blaise very closely and as soon as the door opened, I recited the incantation. The old Blaise faded away as the new Blaise converged with him. But to everyone’s disappointment, Kieran’s current body was sucked into his own dead body.

  I couldn’t believe it. All this risk to save him and he was dead anyway. I recited the incantation again but Kieran was still immobile on the floor. I looked at the doctor who was standing with the others. “Why is he still dead? I asked Dr. McGrath.

  “I don’t know. It should have worked. Maybe there’s not enough magical power to revive him.”

  “No, that’s not acceptable. You need to help me!” I yelled.

  Everyone converged over Kieran’s body and put their hands over him. We started to recite the incantation over and over, louder and louder but I knew our minds were on the assassins behind the door ready to kill us all. The attacks didn’t stop. As before, it was incessant. The louder the attacks the louder our chants became. But after a few tries, Hailey pulled me away from Kieran and without words conceded we had lost him.

  But I was not about to give up. I couldn’t. I pushed Hailey’s hand away and put my hands about above Kieran’s body. I closed my eyes and started to recite. I don’t know what came over me. But the words came more guttural, my voice more hoarse, and the words came out in a peculiarly primitive sound. I was putting every feeling our guilt, and fear and shame and hope and love into every word of that chant. Suddenly I felt the energy coalesce around me, through me and into Kieran. I opened my eyes in astonishment. I caught the look in the doctor’s face: A look of satisfaction.

  Bang! Bang! The last hinge blew off the door.

  “I can’t be found here. The box can’t be captured by the Knights!” she cried out. She grabbed the box from the table and disappeared back into the fireplace.

  Kieran started to cough, trying to catch his breath. I exhaled a sigh of relief and fell on the space closest to Kieran. Hailey dropped to her knees and started to rub Kieran’s back to help him stop coughing. She said, “Kieran, we have to go. Bad people are after us. Can you get up?” Kieran was still holding his head in his hands. He looked at everyone and seeing he was on the floor, he said, “I must have tripped and hit my head. I was dreaming I was in a cave with bars and an older couple. They were so nice to me.”

  My heart caught in my throat. Did he say “older people or older couple?” but there was no time to dwell on that now.

  BANG! I knew what was about to happen next. The door will be blown off completely. I could not let that happen. I could not let the Knights come in here and kill everyone.

  I turned around and faced the hallway. I started to recite the incantation, just as I did for Kieran but this time I concentrated on the current timeline. No one person in particular. I wasn’t sure if it would work but I needed to converge to the current timeline. I put more energy and will into it than I thought I had in my entire body. Then there was a sudden movement in the air. A high-pitched buzzing noise rang followed by a muted clap of thunder. I was disoriented by the sudden change as if sound, space, and time were all at once engulfed into a single coherent point in reality. The pressure fluctuation caused a painful pop in my ears. I covered them with my hands to stop the ringing.

  The next fireball should blow the door down! I held my breath while I waited but it never happened. The door stayed intact.

  I could still hear the muffled ringing then I realized, the fire alarm of the building was blaring. The convergence must have triggered the alarm. I went to the door to see what was going on. Between the time I decided and the time I got to the door, evidence of the previous timeline had all but dematerialized.

  I stood by the door and watched as the hooded figures faded from view and a different timeline converged to become the current reality. Their fading figures gave way to the people from the current timeline. There in the middle of the hallway were Professor Andrews, Detective Dewitt, and my uncle.

  They were arguing about how I skipped out and stole away despite what the detective said. Dr. Dewitt defended me by saying that as far as he knew; everyone was still in the library.

  I knew I would have to deal with whatever Detective Dewitt is accusing me of now, but for the moment, I basked in the glory of our achievement. I wondered if and when the Knights would come back for us again. I really didn’t care, because that moment in time, we saved everyone and that’s all that counted.

  Professor Andrews, Detective Dewitt, and my uncle walked and found all of us standing inside the library.

  “I thought you said she’s missing!” my uncle snapped at the detective. “I’ve had enough of your witch hunts, Detective Dewitt! C’mon, Abigail. Let’s go home.”

  “Oh yeah! Well if she’s been here all along, then who used her credit card in Jensen?” Dewitt asked.

  “Well I don’t know. All I know, Detective, is that I have had these kids in this room since four o’clock today. And I would appreciate it if you all leave now!” roared
Professor Andrews.

  The detective looked at everyone in the room. “Where was she? Don’t even think about lying to me because that is against the law!” he shouted.

  “Officer, she’s been here all this time, we just got back from returning books when the alarm went off,” Hailey said.

  The rest nodded without saying a word.

  Detective Dewitt was fuming. He walked over and leaned over me so far I had to literally bend backwards. I could smell his now familiar breath while he spat through gritted teeth, “I don’t know how you got everyone to lie for you. And what you did to get them to say you’ve been here, but I know and you know that you were not.” Then he looked at Uncle Jake and said, “I have been lenient and I have been patient,” he enunciated every word distinctly to give emphasis to the message, “but you and I know she is a flight risk. You have one week to prove her innocence or we’re charging her for the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Montserratt.” He fixed his hat and stormed out of the library, slamming the now completely working door behind him.

  CHAPTER 12

  The Coven Of The Dagger vs.

  The Knights Of The Crown

  That night I couldn’t sleep. I have never given up on my parents but I know what I saw in the cabin of that plane. I know how those hooded figures were strangling my parents. I cannot deny that memory yet Kieran’s words seem to echo over and over in my head, giving me a ray of hope that I might be wrong. If Kieran could be dead and now he was alive, there must be hope. I looked at the clock. Almost midnight. As it struck 12:00 a.m. a little flicker of light shone above my bed. Every muscle in my body tensed. They can’t have followed me home. I readied myself for the fight. I rolled over, ready to pounce. I sat upright and looked around my bedroom for the attackers. But there was no one there. I looked up, looking for the source of the red light. A flickering digital light was projecting “Happy 18th Birthday, Abigail!” on the ceiling from my digital alarm clock. I had completely forgotten I programmed it to do that. I got up, punched the off button of the clock to take off the message, grabbed it, and headed for the kitchen.

  I opened the fridge and inside was a small cake that said ‘Happy Birthday Niecey!’ I got it out, took the candle out of its packet, and stuck it in the frosting of the cake. I walked to the cupboard and found the cigarette lighter I’d been hiding from my parents. I lit up the single candle and sang myself a slow and not so very-happy birthday song.

  The fragile light from the small birthday candle brought a flood of emotions I never thought would affect me in this way. The happy faces of my mom and dad singing and dancing during my many birthday parties bore a hole of guilt in my soul. There was always a big party where my parents’ friends, business associates, and my schoolmates were invited.

  But it was the after-party that was truly special to me. After all the guests had gone, we would all sit down at the dinner table. Mom would place our special cake down, place one candle in the middle, light it, and would say, “Make your wish. Believe me, they do come true. I know mine did.” She would put her head on my dad’s shoulder. They would look at each other as two people who deeply care for each other would. Then she would smile a broad smile at me to urge me to my wish. I would close my eyes and blow that candle. And every single time, I would open my eyes to the smiling faces of my parents; but not tonight, quite possibly, not ever again.

  I missed my family, even my now ex-boyfriend Grayson, even my fake friends. I cried as I blew the candle, thinking how I had lost everyone. In the haze of the candle smoke, I thought about Hailey, Taylor, Blaise, and Kieran. And how, in a few days from now, if I couldn’t prove my innocence, I will lose my freedom, along with them and my uncle too. I wanted to cry but no more tears came out.

  I grabbed the alarm clock, pressed the Set Alarm button, and entered T-5, Daily Countdown.

  I felt the dirt under my feet, the coarse side of the tunnel as if it was freshly dug and smell the dank smell of wet earth. I didn’t know where this was or even why I was there. I saw flickering lights at the end of the tunnel and the soft sound of people talking.

  I decided to follow the sound, being careful not to make any noise.

  I got to the mouth of the tunnel that ended in a circular clearing from which other tunnels come from. The cave seemed to have a big crack up above where I could see a few stars blinking in the night sky. The crack extended far below the floor of the cave.

  I started to walk in and a noticed a big crack on the floor of the cave. I took a mental note to be careful not to fall into the crevasse.

  There in the middle of the circle, next to a small fire campfire were three hooded figures clustered together with their heads bowed.

  I walked a little bit closer to them but they didn’t seem to sense my presence. I continued walking around their circle to see if I could recognize their faces. Unfortunately, their heads were bowed down so low that their cowls hid their faces. They were looking at a large basin. Their robes were black, with no distinguishing marks except they were extremely dirty, ragged, and torn. They were cinched about the waist by regular ropes and dangling from one of the ends was a nasty-looking dagger. They didn’t speak at all. Mist rose from the basin and hovered a few inches from its lid. I craned my neck to see what was inside the mist. I saw more hooded figures within the mist but I couldn’t hear their conversations.

  The three raised their arms over the mist and started to chant with their arms waving upwards at the mist as if to make it rise. They started to back away from the basin. I darted back towards the wall for fear of being found out. The mist rose and thickened like a cloud over the basin. The hooded men stopped as soon as the cloud was at eye-level. The images of the three hooded men within the mist were now almost life-size but oblivious to the fact that they are being watched.

  I decided I’d seen enough for now. I wanted to find the cave Kieran said he saw. I started to go back to the cavern opening, hugging the side of the tunnel to make sure they didn’t see me.

  I was just about to turn and head out when I heard voices.

  “The Crown is in danger. We need to identify the Knights of the Crown as soon as possible. We need the crown protected or it can destroy everything,” a female voice filled the air.

  I looked back to check who was speaking and realized the voice came from the visions projected within the mist.

  She said Knights. I need to know more.

  “We agree with you but every time we get close to her, we are thwarted by the Sorceress,” answered a man with a rich, deep voice.

  I was mesmerized by the images in the mist. I examined each one and tried to commit the picture to memory when the third figure within the mist, a short stocky one, raised his hand and threw bright blue powder in the air that obscured them from view.

  I stepped forward so I could see better. Instead, I noticed the air around the hooded figures started to ripple and then glistened to almost opaque consistency for a fraction of a second. Before my mind could start panicking, I found myself in another cavern. It was much smaller than the one I came from and had no chasm on the floor or ceiling. There was a powdery blue haze that permeated the cave. It was thick and almost stifling. I blinked several times so I could see better. I caught a glimpse of more hooded figures. I held my breath and closed my eyes, thinking, How many of them are there and what do they want from me? Were my parents in some kind of cult? Too many questions, not enough answers.

  I opened my eyes and decided to keep spying on the hooded figures. I got down on my knees and kept my chest flat to the edge of the cavern opening.

  There are a lot more them than I thought. There are at least six individuals grouped threes. The three I found watching the misting bowl and this group.

  The group in front of me was still talking.

  I noticed that unlike the first group with the dagger belts, this group had a gleaming black flower emblazoned on the backs of thei
r neat robes. It was hard to see it unless the light hit it in a certain angle. They also had golden sashes about their waists with a gleaming purple orb from their endings.

  “We need to secure the Knights and ordain them as soon as possible. We have already lost control of the Kerberian Box.”

  I had to do a double-take. This conversation is the continuation of the one I was watching from the dagger group’s misting bowl. I was confused. Are there two different groups or not? If I was seeing it correctly, the first group with the daggers was spying on the second group with the orbs. I studied both groups to find anything else that would differentiate the two groups but it was too dark and too hazy to see clearly. I will just have to figure that out when I get out of here. I again started to find the cavern opening when I heard:

  “I agree with you both, but we need a better plan. We are being out-maneuvered at every turn. How can we get to Abigail without the Sorceress knowing; it seems she knows everything?” a hooded figure with the female voice said.

  My breath caught in my throat and I couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped me. I slapped my hand over my mouth but it was too late.

  Sensing they were not alone, they turned around, looking for the source of the noise.

  I heard a small cough across the cave on the opposite side. The group also looked in the same direction. In the dim flicker of torchlight and the thick blue haze, I saw Hailey with her back towards the side of the cave. She too was trying to hide from the hooded figures. We exchanged terrified glances. I started to walk my way over to her but I stopped when the hooded figures started to chant and threw more blue powder in the air making the haze more stifling. Hailey wagged her finger to warn me to stand still.

  To our collective amazement, the hooded figures turned around to face us and knelt on one knee with their heads bowed. They raised their right hands, palms down, and said in unison, “To the Knights of the Crown, we pledge of lives, all that we have and all that we know!”