My Two Worlds - 7
Ladies and gentlemen, the next chapter!
Cornelia pushed through the back door of The Silver Dragon and walked in glancing around. She didn't see anyone here. "Will? Irma? Taranne? Hay Lin?" she called ou their names as she walked in further. After a second of hesitation she added, "Caleb?" Still no response.
She came to a halt at the basement door about to reach out for the handle when a voice behind her startled her.
"There you are Cornelia." Her heart beat fast and she spun around to see it was just Yan Lin. "Will told me that you quit the Guardians?" The statement was said like a question and Cornelia felt the need to answer.
"It was just a temporay leave. Where are the others?" she questioned.
"Oh, they haven't come back yet. Even after I told them without you being a Guardian their powers would be weakened, Will and the others went through a portal to try and save Elyon."
What? They had done that? Guilt swept through Cornelia. "How long have they been gone?"
"Almost five hours now."
Cornelia's heart clentched. Five hours? Nothing good could come of that. Wait. "It's like last time isn't it?" She asked renewing some hope for herself. Maybe she hadn't condemned them to prison when she left. "When the battle felt short but lots of time went by, right?"
"I'm afraid not." Yan Lin replied shooting her false hope down quicker than an arrow. "Caleb explained to me what the place looked like and it sounds to me that you had been fighting in the Pass of Quntun."
"Quntun?" Cornelia questioned. What or who was that suppose to be? Meridian certainly had lots of places or objects with a story attached to it. Wait, she didn't have time for a story!
"Quntun was an ancient warrior," Ugh, Yan Lin didn't let anyone interupt her for any reason when she started a story. "who had a mysterious power. He could control time-to an extent-he used it to rewind incidents when his warriors were hurt. So the scars would then disappear. It was said for this reason alone that him and his army were invincible." Yan Lin's hand rose up to strike the air to give more feel to the story. "But," she held up a finger, "One day, in a pass between two hills, he fell. An enemy assassin struck him in the back while the soldiers attacked his own in an ambush. He was left with a choice, save the soldiers or himself. Quntun chose to save the soliders. His magic has stayed in that pass ever since moving time forward at a quicker speed than anywhere else."
Her hand lowered and Corenlia took the chance. "So where did Will and everyone else go?"
"The Mizaki Mountains." Yan Lin replied as she got out the map from her pocket and laid it down. Cornelia went over to see where the portal was since Will had never deactivated it apparently after checking herself.
"Thanks." Corenlia said and turned quickly hair flying behind her in a golden flag as she walked quickly to the door.
"Wait!" Yan Lin called after her as the door was opened, "You must get them out of there before night! It becomes deathly col-" The door slammed behind her.
She was running quickly down the sidewalk with the location of the portal engrained into her mind. A left turn there, cut through the alley, right turn, another right, down a hill. She stopped at the portal floating above a pond. With an annoyed mutter that it was in the air she jumped for it.
And fell into a foot layer of soft snow. Cornelia pushed herself up quickly, the hair along her arms and back of her neck already standing up from the sudden cold. She glanced up at the sky that held the last few rays of sunlight. Yan Lin had said something about night. To find them and get out before then.
She wrapped her arms around her thinly clothed body and walked toward a dark opening in the side of the mountain. She walked deeper into the tunnel feeling the temperature drop further with each step she took. She breathed out in the pitch black darkness that surrounded her. If she could see she knew a cloud of frost would have developed in the air in front her.
She slowed when she saw light ahead and dropped her arms from around her. Cornelia could hear voices down the tunnel.
"Make sure they are chained down good and can't get free we have to leave soon."
"But Phobos wants that Heart..."
"We don't have time to go look for it you nut brain! Now let's get going. Phobos will be happy enough when we tell him the Guardians are dead and can't cause anymore trouble."
"But we're missing one-"
"I told you to shut up!"
The voices of the lackeys seemed to be drawing closer, coming down the tunnel. Cornelia panicked in her haste to get away and tripped over something in the darkness. Something that had glowed when her foot touched it...
The Heart of Kandrakar! It was laying right there!
She grabbed it, curling her fingers around to extinguish the light in the tunnel. Uhh... what was she suppose to say so she could get her powers and use them to the fullest? "I, Cornelia Hale, rejoin the Guardians of the Veil." The Heart warmed under her touch but otherwise did nothing. Damnit! Why did it only work for Will?
She kept it clasped inbetween her hands and moved along the edge of the tunnel passing by the guards silently. She slipped out into the cave that was lighted by two swiftly dying torches. Cornelia had to stop the audible gasp from coming up at the sight in front of her.
Not only were the rest of the Guardians chained to a huge rock in the middle of the cave but so were Caleb and Blunk. For a moment she felt sad for the passling but that quickly went away when she smelled him again. "Eww." she muttered, putting a hand to her nose as she walked down the side of the hole to where the rock was located.
The Guardians must have heard the comment as they looked up to see Cornelia standing there, trying not to gag.
"Cornelia, you came for us!" Will brightened up quickly. Hay Lin smiled from where she was tied on the rock, the wings on her back fluttering slightly as if already tasting the freedom even though the chains were still tight around all of them.
"Of course I did." She huffed and extended a hand to Will, the one holding the Heart and dropped it into the other girl's upturned palm.
"Guardians Unite."
A glow surrounded Cornelia and she smiled as the transformation ended. The small concentrated fire in Taranee's hand grew and started to melt the metal. Multiple chains began falling to the ground rapidly. Apparently those guards really hadn't wanted them to get out. Even though Cornelia had noticed one was broken when she came in.
"Free!" Blunk said happily racing over to Cornelia as if going to give a hug.
She extended a hand to stop him in his tracks. "We can come out the way I came in, it goes directly to the surfac-" Cornelia began as the Guardians and Caleb twisted themselves from the chains.
"There's the other one." A lackey's voice spoke up behind her. Cornelia turned to see a sneering face from the dark tunnel. "See? We got all of them, Phobos will reward us."
The other lackey grinned. "Closing time, Guardians." A piece of metal flickered in the light as the lever was pulled down. Then metal bars slid from the ceiling and floor to close the tunnel.
"We came in a different way." Taranee said, "We'll just go that way instead."
Cornelia nodded and the Guardians took off flying through a tunnel, Caleb followed them easily enough on foot with Blunk running along with heavy breaths. Hay Lin went and picked the passling up when he was beginning to fall behind.
"Do we make a left or a right?" Irma asked as they came to a split in the road.
Hay Lin paused to concentrate, sensing the wind around them. "Right." she replied and they continued on their way. It went on like that when they came to anymore splits except once when Taranee remembered which direction.
Cornelia saw light ahead and grinned. She had gotten her friends out! A second later she noticed the tinge of metal coming out from the ceiling and floor.
"A gate!" Hay Lin called in warning and her wings beat faster to speed up. Thankfully the gate itself was slow with closing, old and rusted. But it was still a ways down the tunnel.
"Hurry!" Will called causing the others to fly faster as they caught the urgency in her voice.
The gate was speeding up. Hay Lin got through first with Blunk. Taranne turned on her side so her wings wouldn't hit the top part of the gate, along with Irma quickliy following. "Caleb!" Will began to turn to the boy that was lagging behind now.
"I got him!" Cornelia called and twisted around to grab the rebel leader.
"Thanks." Caleb said as he was lifted up.
"Don't thank me yet." Cornelia said as she saw the gate coming down faster. She threw him sideways into the opening Will had just slipped through. Caleb landed roughly on the other side. The metal clanged in finality.
"Cornelia!" Caleb shouted from the ground. The Guardians stopped flying to see she was still on the other side. Irma gasped in surprise as Taranee zipped back to the gate and snapped her fingers for fire. She held it to the bars but they didn't warm or start to melt.
"My power isn't working on it!" She called back to the others.
Cornelia heard a faint click of metal in the tunnels behind her. More gates were closing around the same time as this one. "Get going!" she snapped at the other Guardians. "I'll find another way!" Cornelia turned without even waiting for a reply and flew down toward the last fork and went down the other tunnel. She came face to metal with another gate. Extending her hands and closing her eyes, she focused. Seconds later she opened them to see the metal hadn't bended to her will. She turned her palms toward her looking down at them in the gloom.
How was it that their powers didn't work on the gates? Were they enchanted?
Shaking her head and throwing her hands down she turned back around and flew all the way back to the first split they had came too. She swung right, going into the left tunnel. It traveled down quickly, the ground below her felt smooth and slick when she ran her hand along the stone trying to get a feel for the earth, make it shift. Still, nothing happened.
"Shit." she muttered raising her hand from the floor just after her finger touched an odd bump. Something clicked behind her and she glanced back even though it was too dark to see, she heard something open and then something else coming fast down the tunnel. A darker shade of black if that was possible.
Her eyes went wide a moment later when she realized it was a boulder rolling after her, filling the whole tunnel from top to bottom. Booby traps! What the heck?
Her wings beat faster and she turned from the main trail as soon as she felt fresh air hit her nose. The boulder went flying past on it's straight path but Cornelia had no intention of coming back the way that had come.
She was still flying down for what seemed like forever. She breathed in deeply at the crisp cold air. It hurt to swallow it down into her lungs, the cold racing through to fill her body quickly. The sun must have gone down, she thought. The moon must be up now, which meant it would continue to get colder.
Cornelia couldn't feel her fingers anymore and even her wings seemed to have grown numb. When she bumped into a wall due to lack of light she slipped to the floor, teeth chattering. She blinked the frost from her eyelashes and pushed herself back up, walking slowly down the tunnel an arm braced on the wall for support. Her breath was coming in quick short gasps and she leaned into the wall more.
The rock beneath her fingers slid farther in, a click could be heard. Cornelia raised her head in the dark, eyes wary. A series of clicks sounded like a wind up toy. She tensed in the hall of stone. She couldn't see it but she could hear a snap and the shifting of the wind.
It rammed into her full force, a simple piece of long stone wacking into her right side and flinging her along with it for half a cycle. Then she was flung back into the air behind her, crashing onto the ground moments later. She could guess well enough that the trap had simply hit her into another cave.
Cornelia groaned from her position, pain shooting up her side. Her numb fingers touched at the spot beneath beneath her chest and above her waist. She gasped at the pain, eyes clentching tight. Taking in a breath she gasped once again. A hot tear scorched her cheek, it froze quickly in the chill.
It hurt so bad. She could feel her whole body going numb but was made more aware of her broken rib with each shuddering breath she took. "Help." she called, her voice cracking. Cornelia winced as her leg shifted onto a sharp rock and she slowly dragged it off. So cold. Her body had quit responding to her mental commands now, simply limp around her.
"Please," she called into the dark, her voice much softer now. "someon-" Her eyes slipped closed as the cold pulled her into an uncomfortable sleep.
Probably the darkest themed chapter I'll have. What did you think?
