Down a Lost Road (27 page)

Aniira waved at us, frantically. As we raced
toward them, she and Kurtis hauled the frozen form of the Ungulion
into the shadow of the alcove.

“
What happened?” Tyhlaur
cried. “We needed your signal.”

Aniira glared at him over her shoulder as
she stooped to shove the Ungulion’s robes into the shadows.

“
There was no
time.”

“
You were late
proceeding.”

“
It doesn’t matter,” I
interrupted. “It’s done. What happened to the Ungulion? Is he dead?
I thought they didn’t die.”

“
Not dead,” Aniira said.
“Paralyzed, temporarily. It’ll give us time to get away, but he’ll
come to in a little while. He may or may not remember what
happened.”

I nodded and ran the rest of the way to the
stairway door. At the opposite end of the adjoining corridor I
could just make out the approaching flicker of yellow light.
Another Ungulion was coming, and would soon round the corner to
head our way. I beckoned the others frantically. They were still
bickering by the alcove.

“
Come on!” I called, barely
above a whisper.

The Ungulion had turned the corner and was
drawing toward us. In a few moments he would see me.

Tyhlaur finally glanced over at me. He
started to approach, but I knew he was already too late. I waved
him back, shaking my head vigorously in the hopes he would
understand. As soon as I saw the three of them ducking toward the
alcove, I did the only thing I could. I cracked open the door and
slipped through.

Chapter 19 – Choices

Once in the darkness of the stairwell, I
froze. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, but presently I
noticed little slits in the walls that admitted the dim twilight –
enough, at least, for me to make out the steps at my feet. I stood
on a narrow landing, the steps curving up to my left and down to my
right. Damian. Yatol. And somewhere on the staircase, an Ungulion
guard. I couldn’t hear him on the steps below me, so I guessed that
he was somewhere in the upper levels. That meant that going down
was the safer way.

Part of me had a nagging feeling, too, that
we might be wrong about Damian being held in the upper chamber.
What if Damian and Yatol were both down with Azik? I cared about
Mr. Dansy, of course, but the two most important people in my life
at the moment might be somewhere else. I closed my eyes.
Damian.
Where are you?

Suddenly metal hinges squealed into the
silence, and the lower stairs flooded with golden light. Two
rasping voices cut across the sound of the whining door. My blood
turned to ice.

“
Why him first? I say let
Azik take the other. He is weaker. If he gives in, then we still
have the other.”

“
The Breaker can take them
both. He understands the power of…persuasion.”

Somewhere above my head came the echo of
boots. The Ungulion guard was coming down. I drew a thin, ragged
breath, found myself shaking all over. The voices grew louder, the
light brighter, almost blinding in my night-adjusted eyes.

“
Somehow I doubt even Azik
will be able to make our old friend talk.”

“
One of them knows where
the medallion is. Azik will find out. Somehow.”

I backed up, slowly, trying to be silent.
Three steps, four. I stood slightly behind the pillar, watching the
doorway, willing my friends to stay put. I couldn’t help praying
that the two Ungulion would go out through the door. If they kept
coming up, I was lost.

The echoing footsteps above kept getting
closer. The light below, brighter. I just held my breath and froze
against the pillar. My mind careened over a hundred wild ideas. If
my arm hadn’t been hurt, maybe I could climb the pillar and stay
out of sight. Or somehow do one of those crazy split-jump maneuvers
like the guy on one of Damian’s video games. Or take all three
Ungulion out with the knife Yatol gave me.

Or maybe I should just let them take me.

The door opened.

“
Intruder!”

“
That’s the one who got
away!”

The door slammed shut.

Oh no. Tyhlaur.
This would be the
perfect time for Kurtis to use his cell phone diversion. Or
something. Someone had to do something. Aniira. Anyone.

The rattle of boots on the steps above me
finally propelled me into motion. I crept down the stairs as
quickly and quietly as I could manage. A huge wooden door
reinforced with rough iron bars stood shut at the bottom, but I
wasn’t about to barge through. I got down on elbow and knees and
crept under the staircase, flattening myself out the last few feet
so I could get as far under as I could. I just hoped there weren’t
any rats or spiders down there. When my hand brushed some tufty,
sticky strands of something I bit my tongue on a yelp. Waited.

The footsteps on the last few stairs rang
deafeningly in my ears. I watched the painful-looking boots come
into view, closer and closer. If he came any nearer, he would
surely see me.

But he wasn’t expecting an intruder, no more
than the other guards had been. He just stopped where the staircase
got too low, paused a moment, then turned back to the stairs. I
waited till the sound of his steps faded, then let out a huge sigh.
Now for Azik.

I scrambled out from under the stairs,
brushing myself off nervously in case some insect had hitched a
ride. After a moment’s thought I untied the swathe and sling
protecting my arm, tossing the strips of cloth back under the
stairs. It was too much of a pain not having two usable arms.

After staring at the door for a good minute,
I grabbed the latch. The door was going to creak horribly, but I
just gritted my teeth and pushed it open as gently as I could. The
hinges whined a little in protest, but it wasn’t very loud. Not
nearly as loud as the scream that shattered the silence just as the
door opened.

Heart in my throat, I crept into the
chamber. It was pitch dark, all but a pool of light in the very
center of the pillared hall. A few more steps and I glimpsed the
source – a circle of hellish green light simmering just above the
stone floor, casting everything around it in a sickly glow. Yatol,
chained to a pillar. Damian, barely visible, tied to the opposite
column. And between them, the ghastliest figure I had ever
seen.

Azik was no Ungulion. I had no idea what he
was. He towered over Yatol and Damian, much taller than any
Ungulion I had seen. As I crept closer he reached out two flawless
hands, pale, long and sinister. They moved like fluid swirls of
white in the pulsing light. I couldn’t get a glimpse of his face –
if he had one. The deep hood of his robe seemed empty, if only
because his head was bent.

I watched, horrified, as Azik approached
Yatol. One bone-white finger traced a line from Yatol’s forehead to
his temple, then suddenly grabbed his jaw. Azik’s other hand
stretched to the noisome flame. I couldn’t see what happened, but
Yatol suddenly writhed in pain, his back arching like a cat’s. He
tried to twist his head out of Azik’s grip, but the Breaker only
lifted his hand, wreathed in green light, and shoved it against
Yatol’s brow.

“
Stop! You’re going to kill
him!”

Damian? The raw anguished voice brought
tears to my eyes. If only I could get close enough without Azik
seeing, maybe I could free him from his bonds. I couldn’t tell from
my spot if he was tied with chains or ropes.
Ropes. Please let
it be ropes.

Azik jerked his hands away from Yatol,
turning toward Damian.

“
You do not wish
this?”

I fell to the ground in a shuddering heap,
as if my knees had just been smashed from behind. If evil had a
voice, that was it.

I lifted my head in time to see Azik
approach Damian. He reached out those hands, taking Damian’s
shoulders. The fingers seized, rigid. Damian screamed in pain.

Not Damian. Not that kind of pain.

I was on my feet, running. Leapt out from
behind the pillar. Heard Yatol and Damian both shouting. Grabbed
Azik’s arms. For the briefest flash of a moment I thought I saw his
eyes, dead, clouded, staring at me from a mouthless face. Then it
was gone, the hood dark and empty. Azik twisted his hands toward
me. I flew backwards, hitting the ground hard.

Two long strides and Azik was standing over
me.

“
Who is this?”

I glared up at him from the flat of my back,
my hands raised protectively near my face. I couldn’t stop shaking,
from terror or fury or maybe both at once. My breath came fast, not
shallow. I hated him. Every fiber of his being. He was everything I
hated.

My voice gritted out through chattering
teeth, “I’m their vengeance.”

He laughed. The sound rattled and echoed
from inside him, as if it were welling up from a deep pit.

“
I am Vengeance,” he
hissed. “I am Retribution. I am Silence.”

“
For Silence you’re talking
an awful lot.”

Shut up, Merelin! Haven’t you learned your
lesson yet?

The hands flashed out, grabbed my wrists and
hauled me upright. I bit my lip on a cry of pain as my shoulder
twisted awkwardly. He flung me toward the center of the chamber,
where the awful green fire licked the stone floor. I caught my
balance just before I stumbled into the flames, and lifted my
head.

My eyes met Yatol’s. The anguish on his face
stole away my breath, and my throat closed on burning tears. We
looked at each other for what felt like an eternity, then he shook
his head slowly, just a little. I forced myself to turn away, found
Damian staring at me too, with the same look of terror and grief
and anger. I wanted to tell him I was sorry, but couldn’t force my
lips to move.

Azik was behind me. I could tell without
glancing over my shoulder. I froze, closing my eyes. Suddenly his
hands fell on my shoulders and the most harrowing feeling shot
through me. My fingers and wrists arched convulsively, a hard
driving pain shooting down my arms like someone was firing a nail
gun into my nerves. Traces of blue electricity danced over my
knuckles.

In my mind I heard his voice, “What would
you give to save these two? They mean much to you, I can see.”

Cold nausea gripped me.
Oh God, no.
I
turned my gaze back to Yatol. No more grief or fear shone in his
eyes, only anger. His face was white with fury. Azik withdrew one
of his hands from my shoulder, dropping it down to the middle of my
back, exactly over the tender bruise. I braced myself, but no pain
came. After a moment a sluggish tugging crept into my veins,
starting at my fingers and toes, drawing back up my arms and legs.
It seized my face and slid down my neck.

I couldn’t breathe. My lungs pulled and
pulled, but the air just stuck in my mouth, like there was no hole
in my throat. I couldn’t even twitch a finger.

“
What would you
give?”

My vision rusted and clouded, while my
thoughts flickered from Yatol to Damian, wild and incoherent. The
thoughts seemed senseless to me, but the voice in my head hissed
with satisfaction. Then images began flashing into my mind – an
empty room in my house, an empty chair at the table. Emptiness in
my heart and a barren grey grave. Yatol, in a cell. His face
haggard. Gaunt. Skeletal. A skull on a pile of bones.

I wanted to scream, to make him stop. Tried
to drive the images away, but they pressed around me, more and more
gruesome.

“
What would you
give?”

He would do it. He would kill them. Pick
them apart, bone by bone. Break them. Devour them.

“
What would you
give?”

“
Anything.”

The choking paralysis vanished, and I
collapsed onto my knees sucking air into my lungs. Azik swept
around to stand in front of me, drawing two streams of flame from
the circle. His hands flashed out toward Yatol and Damian.

“
Then give me but one piece
of information. Where is it?”

I coughed, to avoid answering immediately.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Yatol struggling, twisting his
hands around in his bonds, trying to pull them free. Finally I drew
a sharp breath and frowned up at Azik.

“
Where is what?”

“
Stupid girl. Pyelthan!
Tell me where it is.”

“
What do you care about
it?” I asked. “It doesn’t look like much.”

“
It means nothing to me. My
motives are none of your concern. You promised you would give
anything.” The flames flared higher. “I hold you to your
oath.”

“
Aren’t promises not
binding if you’re under duress?”