I nodded and stood. “Yeah, we do. I hate to say it, but we do need to hit the hay.”
Felix tilted his head in confusion. “Hit what hay?”
“It’s an Earthen expression,” David explained before I even drew breath to respond. “It means to go to sleep.”
“Oh,” Felix said. “Cool. Hitting the hay sounds good to me as long as we eat dinner first.”
“Fine by me,” I said.
◆◆◆
Once our stomachs were full and everyone else had settled down for some sleep, Mallum and I selected a watch spot and sat down.
“I think I know what Umarek is planning to use the Zemayta Stone for,” Mallum said slowly, as if speaking with caution. He looked pale, but I hoped it was because of the weird lighting of the Labyrinth rather than his theory. “It’s...well, it’s a lot worse than I originally thought. You’re not going to like it.”
“We’re dealing with Umarek,” I reminded him. “I don’t like anything he plans. What do you think he’s planning with the Stone?”
“There’s an ancient ritual involving the Stone that I read about in my father’s books,” Mallum began, running a hand through his spiky, dark brown hair. “It was performed only a few times before the Stone vanished. It essentially allows someone to take the body of someone else.”
I paled, my hands getting clammy. “Umarek wants to use the Stone to take someone else’s body? What would happen to the person whose body he decided to steal?”
“It depends,” Mallum answered, looking as uncomfortable as I was. “One time the ritual was performed, the host somehow regained control of her body—the book didn’t give any details about how she did it—and managed to keep control for the majority of the time, with only occasional times where the imposter had control for a limited amount of time. That was only for one of the four occasions of the ritual that were recorded in the book, though. The other three occasions didn’t end well for the host.”
I took a few moments to process this information, then asked, “Do you know who Umarek wants to use?”
I had a guess of my own regarding who Umarek wanted to use, but I hoped I was wrong.
“This is still just a theory,” Mallum said as a disclaimer, “but my guess is that he wants to use you.”
I was right. I’ve never hated being right so much in my life.
Nervous, but—all things considered—not surprised, I asked, “He wants to use me because I’m the Magenta, right?”
Mallum nodded. “Theoretically, using you as a host would give him access to your abilities as the Magenta, which could be extremely useful in certain situations. Not to mention that the disappearance of the Magenta could kill off a lot of the hope that fuels many of the rebellions that are scattered throughout the Dimensions. He’d become really powerful in that regard and would be met with less resistance.”
So that’s why Umarek wanted me to come alone.
The same images of my friends, dead, that I’d seen in my trial of character flashed through my mind.
I’d have to risk it. I couldn’t let them die.
It was my duty as the Magenta to protect them, not the other way around.
“Good to know,” I finally said.
“Aren’t you worried at all?” he asked, surprised by my response.
I’m terrified.
“Let’s focus on getting the Zemayta Stone,” I told him, hoping he couldn’t see me shaking. “At the moment, that’s the biggest thing we have to worry about. We’ll worry about Umarek’s plans once we have the Stone.”
Mallum gave me a concerned look, but didn’t bring it up again during the rest of our watch.
I barely slept that night.
One day left.
Chapter 27
The next morning, we got up a little earlier than usual, that way we could have a head start for the day. Today was our last chance to find the Zemayta Stone. The full moon was tonight.
We were almost out of time.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Lori groaned after throwing open yet another door.
“What?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
“The path from the navigation stone,” she responded, looking around the massive room we’d walked into, “it’s gone. It went through the door, but it disappeared for no apparent reason a few yards away from us.”
Across from us were three doors, so far away I could barely make them out, even with the torches by each one. The perimeter of the room glowed. The only thing that seemed to separate us from the doors was a glowing stone about halfway across the room. The stone, door torches, and glowing perimeter were the only sources of light in the room, and they weren’t doing much good.
“I wonder what that glowing rock does,” Felix said, walking toward it. A few feet into the room, he walked into an invisible wall of sorts. The perimeter of the room and the section of the invisible wall that Felix hit flashed red for about three seconds before reverting to their original states. Felix cried out and leapt back. “It burned me!”
“It’s some kind of...invisible wall,” William announced.
“Thank you, Sir Obvious,” Selene remarked sarcastically.
“How do we get past it?” I asked. “We can’t even see it!”
“Leather Book, engage illuminated reading,” Regina ordered. The pages of the Leather Book lit up. I wished all books could do that. Regina flipped through them at lightning speed before stopping abruptly and saying, “Here!”
“What does it say?” David asked, leaning over her shoulder to see.
“It’s not just any wall,” Regina elaborated. “It’s a boundary in an invisible maze.” Her face fell. “That’s...it. That’s all it says about the wall. The only other thing it says is ‘The golden sun rises, the silver moon sets.’”
“Maybe that’s important later?” William suggested.
“Forget that. Do you think other forms of matter can pass through the wall?” Felix wondered aloud.
I made a little fireball and tossed it toward the place I assumed the wall had been. It hit true and fizzled out without making the perimeter or the wall flash red. The wall remained invisible and it was difficult to determine where the fireball had fizzled out. “Nope, not really,” I answered.
I had another idea.
Even though I knew what the touching the wall had done to Felix, I walked over to where he’d gone and gently poked where I guessed the wall was with a single finger. It flashed red, just as it had before, but all I felt was a tingling feeling. It was similar to the feeling I got when I used my fire abilities.
“It doesn’t hurt me,” I said. “I can keep touching the walls and try to navigate it. Does anyone have string or anything else that we could use to track our progress?”
“I can cast a small trail spell,” Lena offered. “It can show us where we’ve been, but will fade within the next twenty-four hours or so.”
“Sounds good,” I decided. “Is everyone okay with that?”
Tom nodded. “I think that’s the best plan we’ve got, Smith. Lead the way.”
Dragging my hand along the wall, I navigated the maze to the best of my ability. I brought us to a lot of dead ends. Thankfully, Lena’s trail spell prevented us from going down the same ones twice.
“Check it out!” Felix announced, taking the glowing stone we’d seen earlier from off the ground. We’d made it to the center of the room. “We got the rock!”
No later than the last word left Felix’s mouth, the ground beneath us shook with just enough force to rain dirt and dust on all of our heads. A familiar woman’s voice spoke, the same one that was hauntingly beautiful.
“The golden sun rises,” she stated, then paused as if waiting for a response.
“The silver moon sets,” Regina finished.
“The youngest advises,” the voice continued.
Silence. The Leather Book hadn’t gone that far. We all exchanged uneasy looks.
The voice finished after a moment. “And the oldest bets.”
/>
The voice repeated the whole poem from the beginning, her voice calm, but still haunting.
The golden sun rises, the silver moon sets
The youngest advises and the oldest bets
She was on a roll and apparently decided to add two extra lines. You know, because you obviously can’t have a riddle without some sort of stakes, right? Let’s add a little death to the mix.
Beat my champion with one of your own
Or die, not proceeding, honor unknown
“Fantastic,” I remarked sarcastically. “Like I haven’t had enough to-the-death fights in my life. Let’s add another, just for fun!”
Steven timidly tapped Felix on the shoulder and asked, “M-may I see the stone for a m-moment?”
Felix nodded and handed him the glowing stone. Steven examined it for a minute or two in silence, then said, “I-it says here that the oldest p-person in our group needs to hold this stone and s-say the name of the ally we want to s-summon to our aid. The only c-condition is that the youngest p-person in our group needs to be holding it too.”
“Okay,” I said. “Who is the oldest in our group?”
“Mallum,” Lena responded without hesitation. “He’s eighteen.”
“And who’s the youngest?” I asked.
“I turned fourteen a few weeks ago,” Lori piped up.
“The rest of us are older than that, I think,” Regina stated. “Okay. Mallum, take the glowing stone thing. Lori, go ahead and put your hand on the side there or something. Good. Now, Mallum, say the name of the ally you want to summon.
Mallum gripped the stone firmly and spoke with absolute certainty.
“Kelsey Balker.”
The stone glowed brighter for a mere second before the walls around us crumbled.
Chapter 28
“Is everyone okay?” Felix asked.
I took a quick glance around. Felix had gotten the Copper Shield up before any of the debris from the Labyrinth had fallen on top of us, so we were all in one piece. “We’re good. Thanks, Potato Brain.”
The echoing voice of the mysterious woman returned before Felix could respond.
Your champion is chosen, let the battle begin
With lives to lose and treasures to win
In front of us, on a flat, circular stone, Kelsey appeared in her full Attacker gear.
“Mallum?” she asked, surprised. “What am I doing here?”
Lambda appeared next to her, holding onto her wrist. He stumbled on the edge of the circular stone, but eventually regained his balance on top of it. What was he doing here? “What in the Dimensions?” he exclaimed, looking between us and Kelsey.
Mallum’s look of complete confusion was priceless. “I just summoned Kelsey. What are you—”
“He grabbed my wrist as I was disappearing,” Kelsey explained, hastily yanking her wrist out of his grip. “Long story.”
“Okay,” Mallum responded, letting the subject drop. “Look, we’re in a bit of trouble and we need your help.”
“Wonderful,” Lambda remarked sarcastically. “I love trouble.”
“Do you like battle-to-the-death trouble?” David asked. “That’s the kind of trouble we’re in.”
Two champions to fight? How strange!
One with magic and the other range?
“Who are you?” Kelsey challenged the voice, gripping her bow tightly.
I am the Lady of the Labyrinth of the Lost
I protect the treasures here from sun and frost
“Does she always talk in poem form?” Lambda asked.
“As far as we know,” I answered. “Well, outside of my dreams anyway. Her name is Lady Ryntha, right?”
Steven nodded in silent confirmation.
“First Darkness Guy, now Maze Lady,” Felix remarked. “I guess we’ll never escape these random disembodied voices, huh?”
“I guess not,” I said dejectedly. “Wow, and a year ago I had no idea I’d end up traveling through a magic maze looking for an all-powerful stone while some Lady of the Labyrinth person spouted poems at me, the brother I apparently have, and my friends.”
“You think that’s bad?” a deep voice rumbled from below us. “Try being stuck in this Labyrinth and having to kill any company that comes your way! I can’t even die properly! It’s absurd!”
The circular stone that Kelsey and Lambda were standing on started sinking. Kelsey tried to lift her feet so she could get off, but they were stuck, as if glued there. She looked up at us in panic. “I can’t move!”
Let the battle begin
Die to lose, kill to win
The floor beneath us turned transparent, as if we were looking through glass. When I looked down, I gasped and tapped Felix on the shoulder, pointing below us.
He blanched. “Oh barnacles, they’re going to die!”
All of the Legendary Keepers were soon kneeling on the transparent floor to gawk at the arena below. Kelsey and Lambda entered it from the right and a huge, green dragon, at least a story and a half high, entered from the left.
“That thing is huge!” David breathed.
“Look at those scales!” William had his face pressed against the ground, trying to see the dragon better. “Cutting-edge sharp and very deflective. An ideal choice for a champion. The only way Kelsey and Lambda can beat it is if they were to find some sort of weak spot. This dragon must have some sort of Achilles heel somewhere.”
“Since when are you an expert on dragons?” David asked him.
“Since, like, sixth grade,” William responded. “You don’t know everything about me, my friend.”
“I didn’t even know your identity until, like, yesterday,” David reminded him. “I know virtually nothing about you.”
“Catch up on your lives later,” Regina cut in. “Lambda and Kelsey are stuck fighting a dragon!”
“Does the Leather Book say anything about that particular dragon?” I asked.
“His name is Vulak,” Regina answered, showing me the page about him in the Leather Book. “He guards Ferignis, the Fire Sword. You kill him, Ferignis is yours.” She paused, scanning the page for more details. “He also reforms after about a week if he’s killed in battle. Not relevant, but still interesting. There has to be something about a weak spot in here somewhere...”
“Hit me with your best shot, archer,” Vulak challenged, his voice a deep, bored rumble. “Let’s get this over with.”
Kelsey and Lambda had been conversing too quietly for the rest of us to hear them. Lambda nodded, then Kelsey nocked an arrow and shot it right into one of Vulak’s eyes.
He roared, covering his eye with one of his claws. Another arrow hit the other. That girl was insanely accurate. I realized just how lucky I’d been to get away from her without being impaled during the last few times I encountered her. I shuddered.
“Not cool!” Vulak bellowed, yanking the arrows out of his eye. He roared in agony again, spewing flames out this time.
“Consider yourself warned, Vulak,” Kelsey informed him, nocking another arrow. “My arrow always hits its mark.”
Lambda whistled. “That should have been a nearly impossible shot! Dang, Anemone Girl, you’re awesome! And, um, pretty terrifying, actually.” He gulped.
“Scared, Lambda?” she teased.
“Definitely.”
“Good.”
Vulak was still roaring in pain. An arrow to each eye? There was no way he could see now, even if he wasn’t covering his eyes. He breathed fire at random, spraying flames everywhere. Lambda muttered a shielding spell just seconds before he and Kelsey would have been roasted. The Legendary Keepers and I released a collective sigh of relief.
“Here!” Regina exclaimed. “There should be a chink in his armor on his upper back.”
The Legendary Keepers collectively screamed the discovered information at the top of their lungs, trying to get it to Kelsey and Lambda in the arena. They never made any indication of hearing them. I observed quietly, trying to see the weak spot fr
om up so high. No luck. From here, Vulak’s scales looked impenetrable.
“They can’t hear us!” David said.
“This floor is probably enchanted so that we can hear them, but they can’t hear us,” William observed. “That complicates things.”
“I just sent them to their deaths,” Mallum breathed, his eyes wide and panicked. “This is all my fault!”
“There’s nothing we can do about that now,” I spoke up. “There has to be some way we can help them!”
But there wasn’t.
I watched in horror as Kelsey and Lambda dashed around the arena, avoiding Vulak’s fire the best they could while trying to strategize.
“Come on,” Mallum pleaded under his breath, his eyes glued on the battle. Their chances weren’t looking very good. Even blind, Vulak was winning.
Kelsey hollered, “LOOK OUT!” to Lambda and shoved him out of the way of Vulak’s claws, which were now swinging around aimlessly. Instead of hitting Lambda, one of the claws hit Kelsey, sending her flying across the arena with cuts all across her body.
“Kelsey!” Lambda shouted, running to her side. He had to dive to the side not too far from her to avoid Vulak’s flames. Once he reached Kelsey, he carried her behind a pillar where, hopefully, she’d be safe.
One champion down, the other still strong
The battle goes on, but perhaps not for long
Lambda drew Kelsey’s sword from the sheath around her waist and strode out confidently. “HEY, VULAK!” he challenged, getting into his battle stance. “YOU’RE ABOUT TO HAVE A REALLY BAD DAY!”
The rest of the battle was a blur to me. Lambda dodged Vulak’s tail, flames, and claws, attacking the scaly armor of the huge green dragon in hopes of finding the weak spot. Vulak likely based his attacks on where Lambda had last hit his scales.
After what felt like a tense eternity, it was finally over.
Lambda finally found Vulak’s weak spot in his back and stabbed his sword into it. With a horrible roar that shook me to my core, Vulak turned to dust, dropping Lambda from a story-and-a-half height. He muttered something and landed on his feet softly. He ran to Kelsey and scooped her up.
“There!” he shouted at the ceiling. “We beat your champion, Lady of the Labyrinth! Now let us go!”
The Stone of Power (The Legendary Keepers Book 2) Page 12
