“Known of their value.” Again, it prickled me to hear Tejus speak of humans as though we were commodities. These sentries were still living in the dark ages in terms of species equality… and something told me that I would have a hard, long road ahead of me if I ever wanted to turn Tejus—or any of these people—around.
“So,” he concluded, scooping up his lynx from the ground and propping it on his shoulder. “Do you accept my proposal?”
“What other choice do I have?”
“None,” he admitted. “But I should like to have your formal agreement all the same.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to give him that, but I ended up nodding bitterly. “You’d better release my brother and friends if you win,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Certainly,” he said, reaching the door. “If we win… I have some matters to attend to now, but I will be back for you soon to explain our next step—I suggest you try to rest a little while I’m gone…”
With that, he opened the door and stalked out.
“Wait!” I said, hurrying to the door and wedging my foot through its gap just before he could close it. “I want to see my brother and friends.”
“Oh, you will,” he said. “Trust me, you will.”
“When?” I demanded.
“Soon. I promise.” Then he nudged my foot out of the way and closed the door before locking it.
My stomach felt like it couldn’t sink any lower as I staggered away from the door and sank down on the chaise-longue.
Fear and uncertainty throbbed in my brain.
I had no idea what we’d just gotten ourselves into, but there was one thing I did know:
This was a game Tejus and I could not afford to lose.
Even if the result of his winning was that I got thrust deeper into this mysterious and frightening world of sentries, for the sake of my brother, Ruby, Julian and—eventually—myself, Tejus had to win.
Getting Tejus through his first test was our only hope of escape.
Hazel
I was relieved that Tejus kept his promise. What felt like fifteen minutes later—I couldn’t be sure exactly how much time had passed because my watch had strangely stopped working—the door to my chamber swung open again, and in stepped a tall (over six foot) wiry woman wearing what was clearly the garb of a servant, a plain brown smock with a wraparound apron, her sleek black hair wrapped in a severe bun. She looked quite elderly, her lips shriveled and lined.
“Prince Tejus has requested his brothers to allow a meeting with your fellow humans as a courtesy to you all,” she announced. “And they agreed. So I ask you to come with me. I will lead you to them.”
That was somewhat decent of him, at least. It did little to raise my estimation of him though.
I hardly needed to be asked twice. I rushed to the door, in such a hurry I almost tripped over my feet as I staggered out into a long dark hallway. The walls were made of deep gray stone, like in my sitting room, and aside from some carpets and several coats of copper arms and swords adorning the walls like trophies, it was bare.
I could hardly contain my anticipation as she led me down a winding staircase. We arrived in another hallway, lined with old wooden doors—all of them tall enough for sentries to fit through. We stopped outside one of them. She clutched the handle and pushed it open with a low creak, and the next thing I knew I was stepping into a small hall with a concave ceiling and a long oaken table… around which sat three familiar faces.
I practically cried with relief as I ran to them. They leapt from their chairs instantly. I first drew Benedict into a stifling embrace—his face was so pale with fear, his cheeks so cold—before moving on to hold Ruby and Julian, who had been sitting on either side of my brother.
“Oh, God,” Ruby gasped. Her long blonde hair was matted, her expression strained and exhausted. Julian looked no less ruffled.
“How have you been holding up?” I asked them in a hushed tone, as I threw a glance back over my shoulder to make sure that the maid had closed the door. She had, leaving us with what I hoped was some privacy. “They haven’t tried to crack into any of your minds yet, have they?” I asked, terrified by the thought.
“What does that even mean?” Benedict asked.
It struck me that their captors might not have been as talkative as Tejus was… or perhaps they hadn’t been gutsy enough—or stupid enough, depending on how you looked at it—to provoke answers from the brothers. Julian and Ruby looked just as clueless as Benedict about our situation. Poor things.
I proceeded to explain everything Tejus had revealed to me and by the time I was done, their faces had paled even further and they’d practically stopped breathing.
“Sentries,” Julian said hoarsely. “Who would have guessed.”
“We couldn’t have,” Ruby whispered. “Nobody could.”
“And there we were being good kids doing what our parents told us,” Benedict croaked. “We would have been better off sneaking off to Hawaii.”
At least my brother still had some sense of humor left in him. All three had assured me—after I’d explained the difference between sentries “testing” a human’s mind and cracking into it—that their minds hadn’t been cracked or broken. In fact, Benedict and Julian hadn’t even spoken to their sentries. They’d just found themselves waking up in a strange room, like I had. As for Ruby, she’d spoken to hers and experienced that weird feeling of him “feeding” on her mental energy—but he hadn’t revealed nearly as much as Tejus had to me.
I let out an unsteady sigh. It seemed that, no matter what Shadians did, they always found some way to get caught up in a mess.
Ugh. Life is so much simpler in a sports romance novel…
My mind drifted back to that story even now, and I felt all the more justified for avoiding all things supernatural in the books I read. I could do with a good dose of normality at present to steady my nerves, but I had something urgent to discuss with the trio. I didn’t know how long we’d be allowed to remain in here together. I dreaded the door opening again and us being pulled our separate ways.
I wrapped my arms around them as they sat next to me at the table and pulled our heads in close, so that I could speak as softly as possible… I still feared somebody might be eavesdropping at the door and I wasn’t sure how sharp sentries’ hearing was—whether it was any sharper than humans’. I assumed that it was, given Tejus’s brief comment about humans’ inferior eyesight back in the chamber.
“We’ve got to find a way to make sure that Tejus gets to the sword first,” I told them. Any kind of strategy was insanely difficult to plan out because I still didn’t know what this trial would involve. “Somehow, you’ve got to find subtle ways to slow your sentry down, if you suspect that you are gaining speed on Tejus and me. If any of you reaches the sword first—we will have no escape in sight.”
Even as I spoke, I became aware of Tejus’ cleverness once again. Giving me this incentive of saving my three companions, and arranging this meeting for us, couldn’t have been more in line with his own objectives. He’d probably already planned this out before he walked into the room to talk to me—and that was probably why he’d bothered to answer my questions and be somewhat amenable. He wanted me on his side, so I would get Benedict, Ruby and Julian on my side… thus thwarting his brothers and making it more likely he’d reach the sword first. I doubted his fourth brother would pose a threat to him if he failed to find a suitable human—the chances of which were extremely unlikely. Tejus had already said they’d searched the human realm for some time with no luck in finding “the right minds”.
Tejus really is a smart ass. Like those arrogant smart alecks you read about in love stories… though, unlike those characters, I doubted he had a romantic or redeemable underbelly.
“If Tejus wins, you will be left here all alone!” Benedict said in a pained voice.
I gripped his shoulder and looked him firmly in the eye. “That’s still better than all four of us being left here.
If you get taken back to the human realm and return to our family, there’s a chance you can come back for me.” Somehow… someday… and hopefully I would still be alive by then.
He gulped, his lips trembling slightly.
“You’ve got to be strong for me, Benedict, and for all of us,” I told him, while I tried to maintain my own strength—or at least show of strength. “But at the same time”—my eyes swept to Ruby and Julian—“you’ve got to stay safe. Your sentries cannot figure out that you’re working against them. Who knows what they would do if they did… They might even want to kill you.”
A pause of tense silence ensued. This was going to be the hardest thing any of us had ever had to do in our lives. None of us—being humans—had ever been directly involved with TSL’s (and later GASP’s) supernatural struggles. We’d merely watched from the sidelines while tucked safely away in The Shade. Now we’d been thrown into a boiling pot, with no knowledge or preparation, and forced to fight for our lives.
But there was a reason why the sentries had singled us out from the other humans. We were different. We were tough, in spite of our inexperience. We were children of fighters. Of survivors. Surviving against all odds ran in our blood. We would find a way. We had to.
Each of us seemed to come to the same somber conclusion as we eyed each other, and the three of them nodded at me.
“We’ll just have to do the best we can,” Ruby said.
“Play it by ear,” Julian added.
“And hope we’ll be able to gain a sense of where each of us is once we’re in the mystery maze,” Benedict said worriedly. “If we have no idea of each other’s whereabouts… that could really screw things up.”
“Well, in that case,” I said, “you’ve just got to do all you can to slow them down anyway, even if Tejus and I are way ahead.”
We also had to hope none of the sentries broke into our minds. If they did that, the game would be over.
“Do we even know when the trial will start?” Benedict asked.
I didn’t, but before I could answer, the sound of the door creaking behind us echoed through the hall. I pursed my lips as we turned and saw the maid standing there. It seemed that our time was up.
“I believe your lords are expecting you back now,” she announced, making her way toward us.
Lords, huh. So that’s what they fancy themselves as… There were a lot of things I’d like to call Tejus in this moment, but Lord wasn’t one of them.
She ushered Benedict, Ruby and Julian away from the table, and I was about to follow when the woman turned to me. “Your lord is not ready for you yet. I was addressing the others.”
Benedict left the maid’s side and flung himself into my arms. I hugged him tight, and then exchanged an emotional hug goodbye with Julian and Ruby, before the three of them were escorted out of the room.
Good luck… I bade them in my mind as the door closed with chilling finality behind them.
In many ways, their task was a lot more risky than mine. I didn’t have to hide anything from Tejus. I just had to do what I could to help him reach the sword—whatever that was going to involve. But the others would have to actively look for ways to sabotage their sentries’ progress…
We were going to need courage and tenacity if we were ever going to see the other end of this tunnel, without a doubt. But more than that, we were going to need luck.
A lot of luck.
Hazel
When Tejus entered the hall to collect me a few minutes later, I eyed him with disdain. He’d come without his lynx friend.
“Thought it would be courteous to grant me and my ‘fellow humans’ a little reunion, did you?” I said in a low tone.
He frowned, feigning ignorance, but I knew the cogs were turning in his brain. He reached my side by the table and looked down at me, crossing his arms. “Would you prefer to not have had a reunion, then?” he asked pleasantly. “Because I certainly could have arranged for that too.”
I scowled and looked away from him. There was no point in responding. I’d just made the comment to let him know that I saw through him, and out of irritation. I didn’t like the feeling of being played. I was going to be more alert with him now though, conscious of everything he did and said in an attempt to understand his real motives.
“I’d like to take you to my quarters now,” he said, holding out an arm to me. Then he nodded toward the door. “Shall we?”
I rejected his arm and began striding toward the door. With his long legs, he swiftly caught up with me and reached the door before I did. He opened it for me and allowed me to step out first.
As we moved down the corridor, I fell back a step. Whether I was walking in front of him or behind him, I didn’t much care. I just didn’t want to be level with him.
“When will the trial begin?” I asked him.
“I will inform you,” he said.
He didn’t say another word as we wound back up the staircase the maid had led me down. Only we ventured much higher. Higher and higher until my legs were aching. I’d gained some perspective on the height of this building when I’d looked out of the window, but these stairs almost seemed to be playing tricks on me. Just when I thought it would be impossible for another set of stairs to emerge, they did. I almost regretted not taking Tejus’ arm so that I could lean on him and let him carry my weight… but not quite.
Finally, we stopped on a landing. Tejus’ breathing hadn’t quickened in the slightest. His pulse seemed barely different than it had been when he’d been walking on flat ground. He took a right turn and we passed more shadowy doorways until he stopped outside of one of them. I’d noticed that the carpets on this floor seemed thicker, richer. More luxurious. A sign of the royal quarters, I guessed. The handle of the door he pushed open was also made of what looked like silver, and the wood his door was constructed from looked less worn, more polished.
He stepped into a heavily carpeted corridor whose walls were adorned with the skulls of some kind of very large predatory bird. Maybe from the type of vultures I’d seen flapping around near the base of the castle.
Perhaps they were a sign of dominance in sentry culture. Domineering or not, they looked creepy as hell.
As we neared the end of the long corridor (which I noticed was scattered with lynx hairs) Tejus led me through another doorway, into a spacious, comfortable-looking sitting room. The shutters of the tall windows that lined one of the walls were all open, letting in the final, dying embers of sunlight. The thought that it would be night soon made me shudder. This castle was spooky enough already.
I was expecting Tejus to ask me to take a seat on one of the large, deep red, velvety couches, but instead he continued leading me through the room to the other side.
He reached an old bookcase and, gripping its edges, pulled it aside to reveal a tapestry depicting two vultures battling in the sky. Then he pulled that aside too. My lips parted as I found myself staring at what was apparently a secret doorway. A tiny stone doorway—too low even for me to walk through without ducking.
“What the…”
My voice trailed off as he pushed it open with a low grinding noise. He ducked and moved through it, obviously expecting me to follow. As I arrived on the other side, I found myself in a small round room filled with low tables containing glowing green stones. Yeah, I wasn’t hallucinating. They were luminescent emerald crystals.
“What are these?” I whispered as I approached the nearest cluster. I bent down to stare at them. And why are you hiding them?
“They’re a, uh, collection of mine,” Tejus said after grinding the stone door closed—which made me kind of nervous, given how tiny this room was. He approached and bent down with me before picking up one of the crystals and handing it to me.
Its surface was rough and scratchy, yet as it made contact with my skin, I felt an odd spread of warmth trickle through my arm and up my shoulder, toward my chest.
Unnerved, I instantly put it back down on the table. What kind of magi
c is this?
“You didn’t answer my question,” I reminded him, looking him in the eye. His focus was on the stones, their green light reflecting in his dark irises and making them glimmer.
Tejus rose, and since the ceiling was low—not quite as low as the door but still not nearly high enough for him to stand—he was forced to hunch. “You can call them energy stones,” he said after a moment of thought. “Though they weren’t always this way. They started out as regular stones I gathered from Luckafew Peak—I collected them for their absorbent properties. Over time, I managed to infuse them with my own energy, and I keep them here for times when I am running low on outside sources of energy and need additional strength. I simply have to make sure that I re-infuse them again for the next time that I need them.”
Like rechargeable batteries.
“So why have you brought me in here?” I asked. “Why are you showing these to me? Aren’t these, like, your prized possessions? Why would you trust me with their whereabouts?”
“Because you are going to sleep here tonight.”
I thought that had to be some kind of joke, but his face was dead serious as he spoke.
“What?”
“I will bring in some bedding and lay it down on the floor for you. You will be perfectly comfortable.”
I looked around the dark, pokey room, glowing with the eerie green stones, and curled my nose. “Why would you want me to sleep in here?”
“The stones will grant you additional mental energy overnight,” he said, “and that is important, for my father has decided that, since four of his sons have found human cohorts and his fifth is unlikely to find one any time soon, tomorrow shall be the Day of the Labyrinth. We will leave in the morning.”