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Celeste entered the temple entrance and looked around. There was an eerie silence about the entire floor. She was cautious. The only Gnols she encountered were the guards at the city and palace gates. She was able to handle the guards with ease, rendering each one unconscious.
She continued to look around as she walked in the direction of her father's statue. She felt the left foot of the statue and pressed the small indentation behind the heel of his gold boot. The wall separating her from the temple and the small compartment that led to the secret passageway silently dropped to the floor. As soon as she was inside, the wall shot upwards, and the lights flashed on.
Celeste threw off her cloak and examined the compartment. It was empty, and there was no sign of Jantear or his troops anywhere. She then took a deep breath and slowly approached the stone that was her key to the passageway. Her right hand was shaky as she gently placed it onto the cold surface of the stone. Her guard was up. She suspected that a trap lay behind the wall because this was the last place she had any contact with Jantear.
She kept her eyes glued ahead as the lights scanned her palm and the voice of the computer responded. "You may enter, Your Highness."
The wall folded up into the ceiling, and the lights within the passageway turned on. Celeste stepped slowly onto the damp, stone steps that led down to the palace prison. She walked down about thirty feet to where the steps ended and then she would have to take an immediate right down a long, narrow hallway. She slowed her pace as she approached the bottom of the steps.
At the bottom, she placed her back against the cold stone of the wall and peaked around the corner. Again, no one was in sight. She focused her sight toward the end of the hallway. She could see the door and the control panel that would give her access to the palace prison.
With no one in sight, she jogged to the door and pressed the only button on the control panel to the left of the door. The control panel ejected from the wall, and two small optical scanners rose from within the panel. She placed her eyes into the scanners as the lights scanned her eyes. As soon as the scanners finished their job, the door slid open. With caution, Celeste walked into the darkness of the prison.
After she entered, the door slid shut behind her. She tried to look around, but the darkness utterly enveloped her. She couldn't even see her hand inches in front of her face. She now knew that something was wrong because there were always guards on duty.
She heard someone cough and groan in pain. The voice was familiar. She felt her way in the direction of the coughing and stopped just short as she heard the familiar buzz of the energy field of a prison cell. The prisoner within groaned again, and this time Celeste knew who it was.
"Kylee?" she whispered
Kylee coughed again, and Celeste could hear her move. "Cel ? Celeste, is that you?"
"Yes."
"Ge ?" Kylee coughed and groaned in pain again before she could finish her sentence.
"Kylee, what's wrong? What did my father do to you?"
Celeste heard another cough, and could tell that Kylee struggled to speak. "Celeste, you've got to ? you've got to get out of here, now."
Celeste knew Kylee was right, but she wasn't going to leave without whom she came for. "No, Kylee. I am not leaving; not without you, Bantyr, and Sean."
"Bantyr and Sean have been taken to a slave camp. I ?"
Kylee began coughing and wheezing again. Celeste knew she was in trouble. She backed up to the back wall and felt her way to her right. She knew that somewhere on the wall were the controls that would open the energy field. She continued to feel and move. As she moved, she lifted her left knee. It collided with the guard's desk, and she almost fell in pain.
Ignoring the pain, she felt her way around the guard's desk and back to the wall. She reached her hands out and felt her way up the wall. Finally, she found what she was looking for - the control panel to the prison cell. She could feel the various buttons that controlled the lights and the cells. She wasn't sure which one opened Kylee's cell, so she decided to risk it and pressed all of the buttons.
She heard the snap and pop of the energy fields disabling among the numerous cells in the prison, and then the lights came on. Celeste turned around, and there stood her father. Startled, she flinched back into the wall and smacked her head. Her father, with a look on his face that terrorized her, reached out and grabbed her throat. He lifted her into the air and backed up.
As Celeste struggled for air and the strength to escape her father's death grip, a guard approached Celeste from behind and bound her hands behind her back. Once her hands were bound, Koroan dropped her to the floor.
Celeste looked around the prison cell. All of the cells were empty except the one that contained Kylee. But Kylee wasn't alone in the cell. Jantear's troops were also with her and surrounded by several of her father's royal guards, with their weapons raised on them.
She looked around and could not see Jantear anywhere. She looked at her father, who still had the horrifying look on his face as his chest heaved up and down. "Where is Colonel Jantear?" she demanded.
Koroan looked past Celeste and nodded. Celeste turned around and made eye contact with the guard that had bound her hands. "No ? Jantear ? why?"
Jantear, with a smug smile on his face, walked around Celeste and joined Koroan, standing on his right. "Why do you think, Celeste?"
"I trusted you, and so did Adrian."
Jantear laughed. "Adrian Palmer is a fool and so are you."
"But ? but you are a human. How could you betray your family?"
Jantear's eyes narrowed, and he gritted his teeth. Celeste could feel the anger seething from his presence. "My family ? no, my family was killed in the attack on Base 1. My mother, father, and little sister were on that shuttle that was destroyed on its way to Base 2. So when you say family, Adrian Palmer killed my family. He is to blame."
Celeste shook her head and stood up. "No, Jantear. Adrian was only trying to protect your family. It was the Gnols that destroyed that ship."
With anger in his eyes, Jantear rushed to Celeste, raised his left hand, swung, and landed his fist on her right eye. Celeste fell to the ground and rolled in pain. She looked up at her father and saw a small smile grace his face. He opened his mouth and spoke. "What do you know about family, Celeste? You betrayed your own father and everything you believe in."
Celeste struggled to her feet again and looked her father in the eye. "Believe in? I do not believe in terrorizing another person as you do. I do not believe that humans are inferior. I ? I do-"
"Ah yes, Colonel Jantear here has told me everything about you and this human, Jake. From what I have been told, you have truly denied what it is to be a Gnol."
Celeste glared at Jantear. "How long?" she asked.
"Soon after we arrived at the second base. Needless to say, your father is very persuasive," Jantear said with a smile.
Celeste lowered her head and shook it.
Koroan walked to her, raised his hand, and wiped the blood away that trickled from her eye. "Now, my dear, I offer you a choice."
Celeste looked at the man she used to admire and love, and held back the tears. "What choice?"
"You have a choice to stay here with me and become my daughter again, or witness the torture and death of first Kylee and then yourself."
Celeste narrowed her eyes. "Not much of a choice, is it?"
Koroan just smiled at her.
Celeste looked at Kylee and saw the misery and pain she suffered. She looked back at her father and said, "If I promise to stay and never return to the humans, you have got to promise to stop doing whatever you are doing to Kylee, and let her stay with me."
Koroan smiled and nodded his head. "We have a deal."
A few minutes later, as Celeste and Kylee were escorted to Celeste's old room, thoughts ran through her head. Thoughts mostly about Jake, and the terrifying thought that she would never see him again.