Chapter 13

Selah had no idea where to start her search. She had never been in a building like this before. Sure, she had been in castles and palaces, but this was laid out differently than anything she'd seen before. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She had learned a long time ago to listen to her instincts. They were what kept her alive in training and allowed her to complete tasks given to her when all else failed. Her instincts were now telling her to go up. She searched for another staircase. She walked down the long hallway passing many rooms with old rickety beds and broken furniture. At the opposite side of the building she found a door. Opening it, she found the stairs. She crouched down to study the floor. It was covered in dust and debris. There were four sets of foot prints. Two leading up and two leading down. The prints told her they were made by the same people. One of them was carrying something heavy as they went up but not down. "They must have been carrying him." She thought to herself. Selah knew all she had to do was follow the footprints. They went all the way to the fifth floor.

Selah quietly opened the door at the top. Stepping inside, she looked down and searched for the trail she had been following. After a few steps it disappeared. The floor here had been swept clean. The hallway appeared to have been recently painted and the lights were on.

She crept forward, drawn by the noise of a television on in a distant room. She glanced into the rooms as she tiptoed down the hallway. Opening a door, Selah took a quick look inside and was about to leave when movement from a corner of the room caught her eye. It was Hale. He was tied to a chair, gagged and blindfolded. He appeared to have been roughed up quite a bit. There was a trail of blood coming from the bottom of the blindfold. His lower lip was swollen and split in the middle and a large bruise covered one cheek. His clothes were disheveled. His once pristine jacket was dirty and torn. It looked like he gave his kidnappers a hard time after he woke up. Noiselessly, she entered the room and quickly closed the door. As Selah walked over to him, she noticed his dark skin was paler than normal and his throat had red finger marks that ended with cuts around the side of his neck. She took off his blindfold revealing a cut over his left eye that was almost swollen shut. Hale's remaining good eye got wide as he recognized her. He tried to talk but only coughed into the gag. She put her finger to her lips indicating for him to stay quiet.

Selah leaned in and whispered in his ear. "I'll be back for you. There is someone else here. I have to find out who it is and where they are." She crept back to the door as Hale started to protest. She shushed him saying, "I promise I'll be back." With that she opened the door and was gone.

Selah crept further down the hallway and turned the corner. She could see that after a short distance the hallway ended and opened into a large room. As she reached the end of it she could see the flickering lights from the television reflecting off the opposite wall. This magic box Kenzie had introduced her to fascinated her. She stood for a few moments, mesmerized by how fast the colors on the wall changed. She continued on and turned the corner. The television stood at the end of the room. A comfortable chair sat in front of it with a small table beside it. To her right was a closed door. Light was coming from the small window in it. She heard someone moving on the other side.

She silently crept toward to the chair. Light from the television glinted off something metallic that rested on the table. It seemed familiar to her. As she crept closer she could see ancient runes engraved on a large metal ring with a clasp on it. It was very, very old. Her eyes opened wide and her hands started to shake as she recognized it.

"Impossible." She whispered.

The movement in the room stopped. Whoever was in there was listening.

She heard a man's voice call out, "Who's there?"

As Selah reached for the metal ring she could feel Dyson call her. "Not now!" She pleaded, but she was too shook up by what she had just found to try and resist. She turned into mist and was gone.

Bo and Dyson made a thorough search of the first two floors before Dyson decided to call Selah. He reached into his pocket and wrapped his fingers around the stone.

He looked at Bo beside him. "Here goes nothing." He told her. Looking straight ahead he called, "Selah!"

The familiar black mist poured in from every available door. It pooled in front of him and became a kneeling figure at his feet.

Selah practically leapt up as she gestured wildly. "What the hell? You couldn't wait two seconds?" She yelled.

This took Dyson and Bo by surprise. They hadn't seen Selah this agitated before.

"I almost had it. It was right there in front of me." She ranted as she paced. "If you would have waited just two seconds…" she continued but didn't get a chance to finish.

Dyson had no idea what she was babbling about. "Selah!" He yelled cutting her off. This made her stop in her tracks. "Did you find Hale?" He demanded.

"Yes I found him. He's on the top floor, tied to a chair. He's not going anywhere." She said dismissively. "But there were lights on and a television and…" she continued emphatically.

"You found him and didn't come tell us?" Bo challenged her.

In the excitement of her discovery, Selah had forgotten what her orders were. Her breath caught in her throat as she realized what she had done. She had been ordered to find Hale and report back. She completed the first part of her task, but had failed to complete the second. Her mind raced, trying to find a good excuse for not doing as she had been commanded.

"I found him." She began. "But then I realized someone else was there too. I needed to look around…" her words ran together in her hurry to justify her actions.

Dyson interrupted again. "My friend is in danger, with someone we know nothing about, and you decide to go exploring?" He growled at her.

Dyson angrily pushed past her to make his way to the stairs, but whirled back on Selah. As he passed, he pulled his hand out of his pocket, still holding the stone.

"Get back up there," he commanded, pointing to the ceiling. "Untie him and get him out of here." He pointed to the door leading to the staircase. "We'll make our way up and meet you on your way down." He pointed at her. She noticed the stone in his hand. "Understand?" he growled at her again.

Selah nodded meekly and lower her eyes. She was angry that he wouldn't listen to her. What she had to say was important. But she was also scared. She understood what the stone meant. It would be very easy to make it a living hell and sentence her to it if she failed him again.

"As you command." she quietly said before turning into mist and fading away.